[6][7] While working at the Urban Design Group within the Department of City Planning, Cooper created a new section of the Zoning Resolution, "Housing Quality".
This new section created a scoring system, which rewarded good practices that include corridors that provided daylight, and appropriate scale of buildings.
[9] The firm has written many design guidelines under Cooper's supervision, which are now industry standards for plan implementation.
[citation needed] In total, the firm has written guidelines for over 25 million square feet of completed development.
[3] His notable work-to-date in urban design includes Battery Park City, New York City's west side Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project,[10] the expansion of the Museum of Modern Art, the International Trade Center, Yale University's Framework for Campus Planning,[11] and Zuccotti Park.
[3] As an academic, Cooper directed the Graduate Urban Design Program at GSAPP, Columbia University.