Rodney Mims Cook Jr.


Rodney Mims Cook Jr. is a developer and designer, and founder and president of the National Monuments Foundation.

Early life and education

Cook's father, Rodney Mims Cook Sr., was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives. His mother, Bettijo, moved and then restored the antebellum historic plantation Tullie Smith House to the grounds of the Atlanta History Center. A graduate of The Lovett School, Cook received a BA degree from Washington and Lee University.

Career

In 1982, Cook established Rodney Mims Cook Interests, a design/development company. In 1987, he founded PolitesCook Architects, which designed the Newington-Cropsey Foundation Gallery of Art in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. His Gallery of Art design brought him to the attention of the Prince of Wales and his foundation for architecture and Cook subsequently organized the design and construction of the Prince's Olympic Games monument in Atlanta with Anton Glikin. He is a co-founder of VIMtrek technology. In May 2008, Cook opened the Millennium Gate Museum, the largest classical monument erected in the U.S. since the Jefferson Memorial.

Personal life

Cook is married to Emily Robinson Cook, a commercial photographer.

Recognition

Cook's organization, the National Monuments Foundation, received the 2006 Palladio Award for best new public space in the United States for the Peace and Justice Gate and Plaza. He also received The Atlanta City Council Award for The Prince of Wales's Centennial Olympics Monument. Cook and his organization Youth for the Fox were awarded the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Prize in 1974 for saving the Fox Theater in Atlanta. Cook's design of the Newington-Cropsey Museum resulted in an Arthur Ross Award for Patronage in 1997 to Barbara Newington. Cook and Michael Franck have received a National Civic Art Society board of directors commendation for their proposed design for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C.