Interview with Ada Okoro

In 2025 Low Rise Review asked Ada Okoro, co-founder of Okoro Vale Architects, about small buildings, reuse and running a 14-person studio in Los Angeles. This is an edited version of the conversation.

Why small buildings?

“Because you can still see every decision. On a house or a library of a few hundred square metres, a wall position or a window size changes how someone spends their morning. We like work where we can follow a choice all the way to the person living with it.”

A lot of your work keeps what is already there.

“At River Works we kept the steel trusses and the timber roof deck. It saved material and time, but the main reason was that the building already had a good roof. Our job was to open it up to the river, not to start again. We now begin every project by asking what can stay.”

How do you work with clients?

“We start with a feasibility study: what the site can hold, what it will roughly cost and what permits it needs. Clients get options with numbers before anyone gets attached to a drawing. Some decide not to build, and that is a good outcome too.”

What are you working on now?

“Arroyo Reading Room in Pasadena is on site, and Harbor Pavilion in Long Beach was a competition that taught us a lot about building lightly by the water. We are also looking at more shared housing like Bonnie Brae Courts, where a garden does more for neighbours than a parking deck ever could.”