The Builder of the Year award is presented each year to a member of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association who has demonstrated their commitment to professional excellence. This award recognizes a builder for their contributions to furthering the goals and mission of the HBA through volunteer efforts within the association, the housing industry as well as community and charitable service. The 2012 Builder of the Year is John Cooper of Cooper Homes.
In 1982, John founded Cooper Homes with a simple, yet clear vision. His dream was to create homes that reflect each individual homeowner’s lifestyle, rich in architectural detail, and constructed to the highest building standards with the best materials and products available in the marketplace. Cooper has never lost sight of his original mission and today, thirty years later, Cooper Homes enjoys a reputation as one of Atlanta’s most prominent home builders.
Inspired by the architecture and style of Atlanta’s historic neighborhoods, Cooper masterfully creates communities with the same feel of yesterday yet with all of the modern amenities of today. Examples of Cooper’s artful execution of this vision are evident in the charming, historically themed communities he creates. These communities embody the Cooper Homes’ philosophy that one’s home is an extension of their personality and the basis for their lifestyle.
To ensure that every Cooper Home meets the strictest building standards, John uses expert trade contractors and talented craftsmen. Additionally, Cooper and his team oversee and monitor every phase of the construction process. As an EarthCraft House builder, Cooper Homes are constructed to meet the energy efficiency and environmentally friendly standards of the program.
Customer service is paramount at Cooper Homes. John ensures that each home buyer receives personalized service and is dedicated to providing his customers with a pleasurable home buying experience. Cooper’s commitment to home owner satisfaction is unsurpassed. A member of the Certified Professional Home Builder program further exemplifies his dedicated to maintaining the highest level of professionalism, customer service, and homeowner satisfaction.
An industry advocate, Cooper is an active leader in the HBA. He served as the President of the DeKalb Chapter in 2009 and that same year was honored as the HBA’s Chapter President of the Year. John has been a member of the HBA Board of Directors for the last four years and a Builder at Large on the Executive Committee since 2010. Cooper received the prestigious HomeAid Atlanta Builder of the Year Award in 2011.
Cooper is described as steady and consistent and he is respected throughout the industry for his keen business sense and professional integrity. A loyal friend and devoted family man, Cooper married his childhood sweetheart, Dianne and they have 3 children who have all worked in the family business. Mike and Jenny both received Masters Degrees in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech. Their son, Thomas attended the University of Georgia and is the father of the Coopers’ one-year-old granddaughter, Lily Kate.
In his spare time, Cooper, a previous karate instructor with a Third Degree Black belt, can be found gardening on the 6 acre property in Roswell that he and Dianne purchased in 1978. The move from their 60 acre farm in Birmingham to the northern Atlanta suburbs proved to be a life changing experience for the Cooper family.
The HBA is proud to recognize John Cooper as the 2012 Builder of the Year.