About Cooper Carry

Founded in Atlanta in 1960 by Jerry Cooper and Walter Carry, Cooper Carry has spent more than six decades designing places that bring people together. What began as an architecture practice has evolved into a multidisciplinary design firm with more than 300 employees working across the country.

Our evolution has included the addition of new expertise, studios, and perspectives, as well as the acquisitions of The Johnson Studio in 2016 and 505Design in 2023. Today, our architects, designers, planners and strategists work across a broad range of project types and design disciplines, bringing together the right expertise for each unique opportunity.

Through it all, something fundamental has remained constant: our belief that great design happens through connection.

Connection by Design

Connection by Design is our belief that great design happens at the intersection of people, place, process and performance. We bring these connections together intentionally to create work that is meaningful, enduring, and greater than the sum of its parts. 

Connection is not something new to Cooper Carry. It has shaped how we work for more than six decades. As our capabilities have expanded, so has our ability to connect ideas and expertise across disciplines, bringing architecture, interior design, planning, branding, experiential graphic design, landscape architecture and other specialized services together around the needs of our clients and the places we create. 

Four essential connections guide this approach:

People: Great design starts with people. We listen first, bringing together diverse perspectives to create stronger ideas, meaningful relationships and experiences centered on those who use them.

Place: Every project is shaped by its context. We draw on the history, culture, community and character of a place to create work that feels authentic, connected and rooted in its surroundings.

Process: Great work comes from a thoughtful process that connects ideas to execution through collaboration, exploration and iteration. By bringing the right expertise together, we challenge assumptions, uncover possibilities and create better solutions.

Performance: Successful design connects vision to results. We consider not only how a place looks, but how it functions, how it is experienced, and the lasting value it creates for clients, communities, and the environment.

One Ecosystem. Many Perspectives. Greater Possibilities.

We don’t work in silos.

Cooper Carry’s mixed-use ecosystem brings together specialized studios and design services within one integrated practice. Our teams can draw on expertise across the firm, connecting the right people and disciplines at the right time to meet each project’s unique needs.

This approach is especially powerful as traditional boundaries between building types continue to blur. Hospitality influences residential. Workplace informs mixed-use. Branding and experiential design shape how people understand and navigate place. Planning connects individual buildings to neighborhoods and communities.

Rather than applying a singular design style, we begin by listening. We seek to understand our client’s vision, the market, the context, and the people who will ultimately experience the place. The result is design shaped specifically for its purpose and strengthened by the perspectives that come together to create it.

Designing for Lasting Impact

As designers of the built environment, we recognize the responsibility that comes with shaping places people experience every day. We believe well-designed environments can strengthen communities, create a sense of belonging, and positively affect people’s lives.

That responsibility extends to how our work performs over time. Through sustainable design, thoughtful material and systems decisions, inclusive experiences and an understanding of our clients’ long-term goals, we strive to create places that deliver lasting value.

For more than six decades, Cooper Carry has adapted, explored, and evolved while remaining rooted in the belief that has always been at the heart of our practice.

Connection by Design.