MATTHEW DAVID COOK
Matthew David Cook is an American architect and an Associate at Hart Howerton in New York City, where he leads multidisciplinary teams from concept through construction on complex projects across the United States and abroad. Across a typologically and geographically diverse career, he has worked at every scale, from urban master plans to custom furniture pieces, and in wide-ranging contexts, from structural bamboo houses in the jungles of Bali and a Cold War-era missile silo-turned-office in Beijing to historic hotel renovations, luxury residences, and working landscapes closer to home. This breadth of experience informs his approach to each new project. He is drawn personally to architecture as a basic human need and a vessel for culture, and professionally to the collaborative daily work of shaping places that are beautiful, functional, and built to last.
At Hart Howerton, Matthew leads teams through all phases of design and documentation while also coordinating with consultants, contractors, and clients. His recent work at HH includes a 65,000-square-foot entertainment facility for one of America's most storied family-owned hotels; a hundred-year plan for a house, barn, and surrounding landscape on a 900-acre grass-fed cattle farm in upstate New York; the revitalization of the National Register-listed oldest commercial structure in Naples, Florida, and a neighboring hundred-key hotel; and the reconstruction and modernization of a historic Adirondack home destroyed by fire. Across all of his work, Matthew aims to deliver coordinated, cost-effective, and lasting solutions that meet client goals while preserving flexibility for the future.
After completing his studies at the University of Notre Dame, Matthew spent several years focused on the architecture of the Asia Pacific region. As one of seventeen Americans selected for the 2014-2015 Luce Scholars Program, he spent fourteen months working at IBUKU, a bespoke bamboo design-build firm in Bali. After returning from Indonesia, he joined the team at Robert A.M. Stern Architects in New York City, where he worked on large-scale residential projects in China. Eventually, a desire to investigate by going to the source brought Matthew to Beijing, where he spent a year as a project architect at Zephyr Architects (这方建筑师事务所), leading design teams on a variety of residential and office projects throughout China.
Outside the office, Matthew enjoys cooking for friends, doodling, and playing piano (competently) and guitar (enthusiastically). He is an avid birder, a volunteer at New York City's only wildlife rehab center, and a contributor to the ornithological journal Bird Observer. When sufficiently caffeinated, he can mumble his way through conversations in French, Italian, and Indonesian; his Chinese remains, for now, mostly a "听不懂" situation.
