Draft:Rodney Mims Cook Jr.

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Rodney Mims Cook Jr. served as a founding board member of New York's Institute of Classical Architecture and Art [3] [4]. He was a founding trustee of the Prince of Wales's Foundation for Architecture, a 501(c)(3) in the US, which established the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture in the United States [5], accredited by the University of Virginia. Cook coordinated the design and construction of the World Athletes Monument to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games [6]. He is a charter signer of the Congress for the New Urbanism [7]. Cook is currently orchestrating the design for a memorial library in Washington, D.C. to Presidents John and John Quincy Adams and their wives Abigail and Louisa Johnson Adams [8]. Cook's design proposal with co-designer Michael Franck won the 2011 commendation prize for the National Civic Art Society Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, also for Washington, D.C. Cook is the founder and president of the National Monuments Foundation, an organization that choreographed the design and construction of the Millennium Gate Museum in Atlanta.

Early life and education

Cook's interest in and involvement with activism began at an early age. His father, the Honorable Rodney Mims Cook Sr., was a supporter of the Civil Rights movement and a member of the Georgia House of Representatives. Cook Sr.'s eulogy in the House Chamber was delivered by The Honorable Joe Wilkinson. His mother, Bettijo, moved and then restored the antebellum historic plantation plain-style Tullie-Smith House to the grounds of the Atlanta History Center. As a result of such influence, at the age of 14 Cook initiated a campaign to successfully save the 5000+ seat Fox Theatre [9], the nation's second largest, and was subsequently awarded the National Trust for Historic Preservation Prize by trust President James Biddle [10]. Cook served as a White House intern in 1974 under President Richard Nixon. He was influenced by architect Philip Shutze, acclaimed in 1978 by architecture classicist Henry Hope Reed as America's greatest living classical architect. Shutze designed three homes of various members of Cook's family and guided him in his architecture education and critiqued his early work. A graduate of The Lovett School and Washington and Lee University, Cook obtained a BA degree focused on architecture, history and politics.

Career

In 1982, Rodney Cook established Rodney Mims Cook Interests, a design/development company and PolitesCook Architects in 1987, which designed the Newington-Cropsey Foundation Gallery of Art in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York [11]. 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 Princes' Olympic Games monument in Atlanta with Anton Glikin [12].

He is on the boards of directors of the Hearst Castle Preservation Foundation, California, the National Monuments Foundation, Historic Mims Park, Atlanta, and the American University of Integrative Sciences, Sint Maarten, and is an emeritus board member of The FOX Theatre Inc., the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, The New York Philomusica, The Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, and is a past president of both the Animal Health Trust U.S., Newmarket, England and WPBA (TV)/WABE, Public Broadcasting Atlanta.

Cook's work has been published in Architectural Digest, Time Magazine, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times of London, Pravda, Izvestia, The New Yorker, The Weekly Standard, Forbes, and USA Today.

Cook was involved in the creation of the Plum Orchard Center for the Arts to be located on Cumberland Island, Georgia with his friend John F. Kennedy Jr. The premature death of JFK Jr., a fellow board member, ended this project. Cook spoke at his funeral in July 1999.

In May 2008, Cook opened the Millennium Gate Museum, which is the largest classical monument erected in the U.S. since the Jefferson Memorial.

In November 2008, Rodney Cook was part of a delegation who, along with the Mayor of Atlanta, travelled to the UK to visit HRH Prince Charles [13]. They discussed the rebuilding of Historic Mims Park, now called Rodney Cook Sr. Park, in Atlanta and the possibility of the Prince of Wales' involvement given his background in urban design.

Rodney Cook testified before Congress on behalf of the National Monuments Foundation in 2012 concerning the proposed plans for a new Eisenhower Memorial in Washington D.C.

In November 2015, he was a keynote speaker at the "Master Plan for 21st Century Havana" Conference [14], which for the first time in Cuban history, Cuban citizens and international scholars and urbanists participated together to develop an independent and comprehensive holistic vision for the entire city.

Rodney Cook, Jr. was one of 3 keynote speakers at the Hermitage Museum in the Catherine the Great Theater of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia for the Museum of the 21st Century and New Media Technologies: Limits of Freedom Conference to discuss the future potential of museum archives with the help of virtual reality.[15]

Personal life

Rodney Mims Cook Jr. is married to Emily Robinson Cook. Emily Cook, a commercial photographer, is responsible for the creation of the largest wildlife sanctuary in the city of Atlanta. She is a member of the Hubbard Advisory Council of the National Geographic Society and the Explorers Club in New York. They have two daughters, and the family resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Controversy

In 2017, groundbreaking began on Rodney Cook Sr. Park in Historic Vine City. In his role with the National Monuments Foundation, and having been compelled by Cook Sr. on his deathbed to rebuild the park, Rodney Mims Cook Jr. is involved in the design and development of the park. The park was originally set to be named "Historic Mims Park" after Rodney Mims Cook Jr.'s ancestor, Livingston Mims, who built the park in 1899. However, due to backlash from outside the community, and despite Mayor Mims having built Atlanta's first integrated park, the Vine City community asked the Atlanta City Council to change the name of the park to honor Cook's father. The Mims name is contentious, since Livingston Mims was a Confederate officer, and the park is again to be situated in a predominately African American neighborhood, which includes Civil Rights Leader and Cook, Sr.'s friend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Life Home that faces the park. Rodney Cook Sr. Park is expected to be completed in early 2021 and has drawn international attention, which compelled the Atlanta Business Chronicle to do a feature interview with Rodney Cook, Jr. [16].

Recognitions

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 Preservations Prize in 1974 for saving the 5000+ seat Fox Theater in Atlanta [17]. Cook's design of the Newington-Cropsey Museum resulted in an Arthur Ross Award for Patronage in 1997 to Barbara Newington. The Newington-Cropsey Foundation was also awarded a New York Citation by Governor Mario Cuomo. 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. The City of Atlanta honored Cook's family and their service to the city and the State of Georgia in December 2011 [18].