c o p a
COPA is a full service architecture and interior design firm based in New York City and Los Angeles founded by Manuel Cordero and Galen Pardee. CoPa designs housing, artist studios, restaurants, and exhibitions.
Building from Galen’s research on the geopolitics of construction material supply chains and Manuel’s construction experience with prefabricated and vernacular building materials, COPA operates on both the collective time-scale of materials and communities, while meeting the singular, specific needs of our clients. Projects focus on minimizing demolition and re-using existing elements to their maximum extents: where re-use is impossible, COPA embraces emerging and traditional low-embodied cost materials drawn from our research and experience in the field. Our favorite projects combine local supply chains and materials with modern building science to deliver new hybrid structures that are designed to respond to their local environments, while providing modern, expressive spaces that exceed our clients’ original visions.
By working within these social and environmental ecologies, COPA creates spaces not just for the immediate needs of communities and residents, but for the longer-term lives of buildings and the future communities that will need them.
Manuel Cordero AIA, NCARB, AIBC
Principal
Manuel Cordero is a native of Queens, New York.
He began developing his construction expertise as an architect working on complex projects ranging from interior renovations for major corporate headquarters to luxury residential designs throughout the United States. He has worked for Conant Architects, Leroy Street Studio, Kohn Pedersen Fox, WeWork, Artifact Development and Brandon Haw Architecture.
Manuel holds a Masters in Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP and received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University.
Galen Pardee Assoc. AIA
Principal
Galen Pardee teaches at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, as well as Sarah Lawrence College where he is the Andrew Mellon Chair for Sustainable Design and Environmental Architecture.
Previously, he was the 2019-2021 LeFevre Emerging Practitioner Fellow at The Ohio State University’s Knowlton School of Architecture, and has taught architecture and landscape architecture studios at Barnard University and the University of Tennessee. Galen holds a Masters in Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP where he received the Alpha Rho Chi Medal, and a BA in Politics cum laude from Brandeis University.