Cohen Architectural Woodworking stands solidly as a professionally managed, family-owned business, rooted in the pursuit of excellence. Our mission is to make your world more beautiful with the finest craftsmanship possible, to build an excellent relationship with you, and to continue our near perfect record for on-time delivery.

I started working with wood in 1975 in a neighbor’s barn, building porch swings from walnut, cherry, and cedar. Having grown up in the violent neighborhoods of Chicago in an abusive home, and later overcoming drug use/addiction and manic depression, I found woodworking therapeutic.

In 1976, Gina and I married. We moved into a four room, 24 x 24 house that was built back in the forties from rough lumber. It had no running water and we cooked on a wood stove. The rent was $15/month. Half the house became our shop, and the attic was our bedroom. In the winter we would wake up with snow on our bed.
I built multi-unit birdhouses, baby cradles, and toy wooden box trucks with roller skate wheels. Gina painted the artwork on the toy trucks and hand sewed a little quilt and a fitted flannel sheet for each baby cradle.

In 1982, I purchased my first business license. We built a home just down the road with used building materials and began building cabinets in our new 600 square foot basement on a gravel floor and with a rickety old 8” table saw.

I had been asked to build the cabinets for our UPS driver’s new house, but I didn’t know what I was doing. In desperation I called every cabinetmaker in the phone book. One was John Heubi, a master cabinetmaker who had been apprenticed by an old German woodworker. Both of us had the flu and were bored, so we spoke late into the night for several days. One night John offered to teach me to become a professional woodworker. John and I didn’t meet face-to-face for a year-and-a-half, and he only came to my place a few times. But, for the next five years, we talked by phone for long hours. John helped me develop the heart of a craftsman.

In 1984, we built our first real shop, using materials from an old mechanic shop. We had to take the building apart to salvage cement blocks, old-style curved trusses and doors. Then we hauled everything up the mountain to where we lived.

For the next several weeks I prepared the materials, chiseling the mortar off the old cement blocks until my hands were bleeding. After the 2,400 square foot building was up, the walls looked like an old quilt because of the signs that had been painted on the previous building. So I went to the local paint dealer and asked him to mix together all his miss-tinted paint. It became a nice shade of gray, which we used to spray-paint the walls. We took some big timbers and straightened out the curved trusses.

Meanwhile, Lew Mashburn, administrator of Coffee Medical Center in Manchester, Tennessee, asked me to help them remodel their facility. That led to more projects, including the Boy Scouts headquarters in Chattanooga and other corporate work such as medical facilities, hotels, stores, office buildings, and more. By 1986 we were working for several large general contractors, many of whom were building Walmart Stores. By 1990, we were shipping work all over the United States, including to Alaska and Hawaii.

In 1994, we moved to Flemingsburg, Kentucky and built a 2,800 square foot facility. We made another move to Summersville, Missouri in 1998 and built a 3,200 square foot facility. Then in 2004, we moved to Saint James, Missouri and built a 12,000 square foot facility in the town’s Industrial Park. In 2007, we added 9,000 square feet to the building. In 2014, we opened a small office in Lenexa, Kansas. And in 2016, we added another 33,250 square feet to our Saint James headquarters. Our main facility is now 54,250 square feet and we have around 75 employees.

Meanwhile, Lew Mashburn, administrator of Coffee Medical Center in Manchester, Tennessee, asked me to help them remodel their facility. That led to more projects, including the Boy Scouts headquarters in Chattanooga and other corporate work such as medical facilities, hotels, stores, office buildings, and more. By 1986 we were working for several large general contractors, many of them who were building Wal-Mart Stores. By 1990, we were shipping work all over the United States, including to Alaska and Hawaii.

In 1994, we moved to Flemingsburg, Kentucky and built a 2,800 square foot facility. We made another move to Summersville, Missouri in 1998 and built a 3,200 square foot facility. Then in 2004, the company built and moved into a 12,000 square foot facility in the Industrial Park in Saint James, Missouri. In 2007, we added 9,000 square feet to the existing building. In 2014, we opened a small office in Lenexa, Kansas. And in 2016, we added another 33,250 square foot expansion to our Saint James headquarters, bringing the total square footage of our main facility to 54,250 square feet. Today we have about 75 employees.

Gina and I have nine children. Five sons, four daughters and sixteen grandchildren. Three sons and a daughter still work with Gina and me, plus we have an amazing team, whom we love as family. Some employees come to us from broken backgrounds, similar to mine. We hire people who are willing to work hard and overcome any obstacle, regardless of their background.

Because we have a loving culture with a strong work ethic and a highly skilled team, our hearts are big enough to love and serve our customers and vendors, and make the world around us better.

Come and join us on this amazing journey!