Coleman Coker, RA, Professor of Practice, is the director of the Gulf Coast DesignLab at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. Coker was awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and is a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Memphis College of Art and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from there. The Architectural League of New York in 1991 recognized him in their "Emerging Voices" series.

He has been the visiting Favrot Chair and Professor of Practice at Tulane University School of Architecture and the E. Fay Jones Chair at the University of Arkansas. He's past director of the Memphis Center of Architecture, an urban design studio sponsored by the University of Tennessee, which focused on a deeper appreciation of the art of building.

With forty years of experience in design offices - over thirty years as principal of his own firms - Coker founded buildingstudio in 1999 after a thirteen-year partnership with Samuel Mockbee as Mockbee/Coker Architects. With the formation of buildingstudio Coker sought to blur the boundaries between architecture, art, craft and thinking - rather than separate disciplines, each is essential to the larger realm of building. His work has received numerous honors including National AIA Honor awards, Architectural Record, "Record House" awards and P/A Design Awards. Coker has lectured extensively at universities and professional forums and has participated in numerous design juries across the country. Coker's work has been published widely both at home and internationally. His designs have been highlighted in shows in the United States and around the world.