We were lucky to catch up with BARRETT COOKE recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, BARRETT thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents are entrepreneurs and both of their parents were entrepreneurs as well. My sister Elizabeth and I spent many weekends and summers working in our parents’ bookstore and grew up seeing some of the rewards as well as complexities of running a business. My dad is an unrealized architect who loved drawing and designing elements of their stores and our house and my mom is a powerhouse who is still always trying to figure out what lessons to learn from each situation and how to work internally and externally to make things better. They both encouraged every interest I developed and not only supported those interests but also showed sincere curiosity about them. I felt empowered to keep trying new things and lean into those adventures.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After studying Interior Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design I moved to Los Angeles and worked at a series of well-respected boutique architecture firms. Having my second child clarified quite quickly that I needed to carve a path that would allow me to continue with my practice but in a more flexible way. I met my business partner, Alice Arterberry, when we were both in similar positions and joined to create our firm, Arterberry Cooke Architecture. We have been working together for almost 10 years now and Alice manages the Austin, TX office while I manage the Los Angeles office. Our goal is to create a workplace that allows for our employees to live well-balanced lives while taking tremendous pride in what they do.

Our work reflects a focused, collaborative vision, while capturing a home’s soul, and evoking form, functionality, and modernity. We are a full service firm offering comprehensive design and architecture services from construction administration, permitting, and project management to landscape design, interior design, material selection and everything in between.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love being able to work on a collaborative team with our staff, clients, contractors, and tradespeople to collectively realize a vision is very rewarding. Each proposed design comes with its own set of challenges and pitfalls but problem-solving and eventually having a visual representation of an idea is exhilarating!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We care very deeply about the client experience and work diligently to facilitate each project. Every project has its own set of unique circumstances, relationships, partners, and personalities and as such there are moments when we fall short of our goal, but we treat each project with the same level of importance. We continue to push ourselves as a firm to creatively approach each project with an eye towards longevity, fun, reverence, and ingenuity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.arterberrycooke.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arterberry_cooke

Image Credits
Gavin Cater, Scott Pitts, Mark Daniels,