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Brighter Future A STO R I ED PA ST A N D
B y S A L L I E W. B OY L E S
P h o t o g r a p h y c o u r t e s y o f T H E N AT I O N A L M O N U M E N T S F O U N D AT I O N
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us. — W in s ton C hu rc hil l
From early civilization to modern times, countless ideologies and practicalities have given rise to the world’s most impressive buildings and monuments. Subsequent generations have applied the same principles when choosing to demolish structures that were once integral to a way of life. Forever mindful of the legacy he’ll leave through the architectural projects he designs and advances, Rodney Mims Cook Jr. encourages a greater understanding of architecture’s historical significance and its impact on humanity before people decide what goes up and what comes down.
Answering his calling early in life, he remembers creating paper models of buildings from the time he was three. “I now make them in stone,” Rodney jokes, revealing that the elaborate “urban centers” he assembled were “two to three times larger than I.” For a child drawn to architecture, he grew up in an ideal environment. His first mentor was renowned architect Philip Trammel Shutze (1890–1982), who designed many of Atlanta, Georgia’s buildings that appear on the National Register of Historic Places. Among them is the Swan House, now home to the 78 | AUGU S T 2019
Atlanta History Center. “Mr. Shutze had designed houses of various family members,” Rodney explains, “so I got to be close with him.” In fact, he adds, “My mother [who ran the History Center’s Tullie Smith House restoration for years] would send me to the Swan House with a key to do my homework.” Acknowledging that such opportunities were extraordinary, Rodney says, “It was evident from an early age that I was in an unusual family because I would see Dad on the evening news.” Accordingly, “cookouts on Sundays from spring into fall” with civic leaders like Mayor William Hartsfield, Martin Luther King Jr., and “Daddy King” (MLK’s father) were just part of growing up, yet he knew his parents’ friends weren’t everyday people. “I was told by numbers of folks, including my father, how important their work was, sticking their heads above the crowd in ways that were honorable but dangerous,” says Rodney.
