Robert James Coote was born on November 26, 1931 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was raised in Boston, Massachusetts, 1931-1936, and in Maryland near Washington, D.C. He attended St. Albans High School in Washington, D.C.

In 1948-1953, Coote attended Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy. He became interested in architecture during his sophomore year. In the summers while attending college, he participated in the U.S. Navy’s Reserve Officer Candidate program, received his commission upon graduation and served on the 7th fleet staff as a communications officer from 1953-1955. His two year tour allowed him to study architecture and philosophy in Japan. It was during this period that he became fascinated with the grace and beauty of Japanese design, which greatly influenced his eclectic style and sense of color in later years. He completed his final four years of Naval Reserve commitment attached to units in Washington D.C.

From the Navy, Coote applied for architecture school at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was accepted and after four years attendance earned his Master of Architecture degree in 1960. During the spring of 1960, he served as Visiting Critic, Boston Architectural Center and applied for and was accepted for a Post Graduate Fulbright grant to study architecture in Italy. For the next year he studied architecture and design in Europe under Bruno Zevi.

In 1961 after his return to the U.S., Coote worked as a designer with Chloethiel Woodard Smith and Associates, Washington, D.C., (1961-1965). He became a Registered Architect in D.C. in 1963 and earned his National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Certification in 1965. In the same year, Coote moved to Austin, Texas where he accepted a position as a tenure-track professor at the University of Texas, obtained his credentials by reciprocity as a Registered Architect in Texas, and opened a sole proprietorship—James Coote, Architect.

Coote’s active teaching career spanned 35 years from 1965 to 2000. Beginning as an Assistant Professor, he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1970. He was promoted to full Professor and selected as a Cass Gilbert Teaching Fellow in 1981. He was appointed Professor Emeritus in 2000. In spring 1983, he served as a Visiting Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He taught at all levels of architectural design studies and architectural history, providing lectures, surveys, and seminars, dealing mainly with buildings and interiors of the 20th century in America and abroad. Although his academic career included research, writing, and lectures, principally at the University of Texas at Austin, Coote traveled extensively in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, England, Scotland, Japan, and Hong Kong gathering information for his teaching and professional activities. Coote leveraged his knowledge of Europe by participating in the University of Texas student Foreign Study Program assuming a leadership role in the aspects of the programs dealing with architecture and design, predominately in England, but also in Italy, and Western Europe in general.

James Coote’s extensive travels allowed him to build a collection of over 2,000 35 mm slides, which he used in teaching. The majority of these slides became part of the University of Texas, School of Architecture, Visual Resources Collection. His travels were predominately funded from his personal resources, although he also was successful in receiving some grant funding beginning with the Fulbright grant in 1960 and later by grants from University Research Institute for studies of English interiors, and from the Texas Society of Architects for studies on the Texas Eclectic Architecture project.

As an architect, he was influenced mainly by the work of Mies van der Rohe and the International Style and by the aesthetic principles of Japanese architecture and art. His approach was essentially classical and minimalist. He emphasized materials, methods of construction, and detailing; light and lighting; and color as means of making buildings of symbolic, emotional, and intellectual meaning. His professional activity was largely in and around Austin, Texas.

Professor Coote's architectural projects, drawings, and writings have been published in a number of books and professional periodicals. His major work on early 20th century Texas architect Atlee B. Ayres was published in 2001. In The Eclectic Odyssey of Atlee B. Ayres, Architect, Coote focuses on Ayres' San Antonio residential architecture and the varied sources from which he drew inspiration.

As part of his service to the community, Coote, has been a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Society of Architectural Historians, and the Texas Society of Architects where he served as a contributing editor to Texas Architect. He also served on the Board of Trustees at Laguna Gloria Art Museum and Ballet Austin and as a volunteer docent at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center and the Blanton Museum of Art.