Peter D. Cook, FAIA, NOMA, of HGA was elected to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Board of Trustees, effective January 1, 2023.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation operates Monticello, the plantation home of Thomas Jefferson. Cook joins a national group of professionals across industries supporting the Foundation’s mission of preservation and education.
Cook is a Design Principal in HGA’s Washington, D.C. office, where he specializes in the design of arts, community, cultural, and educational projects.
Monticello holds personal meaning for him since first visiting the site as a teenager. While working on the design of the Contemplative Site and Burial Ground for Enslaved People at Monticello, he was presented with written documentation confirming family oral history that his ancestor, Alethia “Lethe” Tanner, was a “servant” to Thomas Jefferson during his presidency.
“It is interesting to come full circle 40 years later after my first visit to work on the Contemplative Site and Burial Ground,” he noted in a recent interview, Creating Shared Experiences through Architecture. “It is profoundly fulfilling professionally and personally to work with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which is dedicated to telling a much fuller, more complex story of Monticello and the over 600 people who were enslaved there.”
In addition to Monticello, Cook is designing the Bronzeville Center for the Arts in Milwaukee.
Cook also was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden to serve as a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and elevated to Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
For more information, visit The Thomas Jefferson Foundation.