AIA Seattle ‘Young Architect of the Year’ | Brian Court


The following comments were presented by Brian Court, associate, Miller Hull, on the occasion of his being honored with the AIA Seattle ’2013 Young Architect of the Year’ award. This award is given to individuals licensed fewer than 10 years who have shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession related to design excellence, sustainable design, community engagement, the practice of architecture, technological innovation, or education in an early stage of their architectural career.

“Thank you AIA Seattle for this honor. It is a very humbling moment for me. On a lighter note, I can’t tell you how many congratulations I have received for still being ‘young’.”
Read More »


Recycle your (Big!) Boxes


Unfortunately, buildings built in the United States today are generally not designed to last; especially industrial warehouses. But if we look at the older warehouse structures along Seattle’s waterfront, we see buildings that have survived and been re-purposed many times over during the last century. A warehouse building is well suited to re-use. It is open –with long spans– ready to be put to virtually any future use. Of course today’s warehouses are not built as robustly as those constructed a century ago, and they lack the nostalgic value of the older structures – but are those reasons enough to demolish them when they are no longer needed for their current use? What ongoing value resides in these structures, and how can we capitalize on that worth by giving them second, and third, lives? This is a question the City of Kirkland, Washington took on when choosing to transform a ‘big box’ warehouse into a new public safety building, combining police and courtroom functions.
Read More »


Mentoring the design professionals of tomorrow


The Seattle ACE mentorship program is wrapping up for another year. ACE is a national program with the mission to engage and encourage high school students to pursue careers in architecture, engineering and construction. The Miller Hull team is one of nine Seattle teams from high schools throughout the entire Puget Sound area (1,300 students total), pairing high school students with building industry professionals to teach them how buildings and spaces are designed, engineered and constructed. Throughout the school year, teams meet about every other week to learn about the design, engineering and construction professions, as well as to work on a common design problem. Groups of students interested in a specific discipline work with industry professionals to get a sense of what they do. Along with learning about a main area of interest, students are also exposed to related fields, for a complete picture of design and construction roles.
Read More »


Bullitt Center: A prototype for urban green buildings


With the official opening of the Bullitt Center this week on Earth Day, we wanted to share perspective about what this project means for us as a firm and for the design industry, as a whole — as it signifies a shift in the actual process of how buildings are designed and demonstrates the range of opportunities for inventiveness and creativity that are possible when integrated design teams target aggressive efficiency goals.

As architects we often find ourselves trying to coax clients into pursuing more efficient, environmentally responsible buildings.

With the Bullitt Foundation and its president, Denis Hayes, that clearly wasn’t the case, as the Bullitt Center was envisioned as a landmark prototype for green, urban buildings. Targeting the rigorous requirements of the Living Building Challenge green-building certification program, the Bullitt Center was projected to be twice as efficient as any building our firm had designed to date, at least on paper.
Read More »


© 2013 - The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP