home > about the Miller Hull Partnership, LLP

Year Established:

1977

Firm Personnel by Discipline:

Architectural: 48
Student Interns: 1
Administrative: 7
Partners: 4

Types of Work:

Public: 55%
Residential: 20%
Commercial, Office, T.I. 15%
Industrial Facilities: 10%

Firm Origin

After graduation from Washington State University, both David Miller and Robert Hull served in the Peace Corps in Brazil and Afghanistan, respectively. Upon returning they worked separately in various offices including Marcel Breuer and SOM prior to coming to Seattle to form The Miller|Hull Partnership in 1977. In 1985 Norm Strong was named partner, and in 1994 Craig Curtis became the fourth partner. The office is located in downtown Seattle and has a staff of fifty-three. In-house capabilities include master planning, urban design, full-service architectural, interior design, and space planning. We have projects in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, California, Washington DC, Arizona, Illinois, Wisconsin, Montana, Nevada, and Idaho.

Firm Mission

With their experience in the Peace Corps, both David Miller and Robert Hull believe in socially responsible and humane public architecture. Since 70% of our projects involve public funding, we have learned that certain responsibilities come with public work. We encourage public input as it enriches the design and makes it truly representative of the community for which it is intended. Working with advisory committees and citizen groups is a rewarding experience, and we support the process of interactive decision making. We do not believe that public buildings need to be institutional in appearance or functionality. All public buildings are public architecture and as such must contribute in a positive way to their communities. Our interactive process is applicable to private clients as well and our collaborative way of working leads to very successful projects.

Project Base

In 29 years and with over $200 million worth of completed projects, our work base is composed of a diverse assortment of project types - from neighborhood park structures to a $54 million laboratory and classroom building. Miller|Hull specializes in projects such as schools, higher education facilities, nature centers, community centers, mixed use buildings, laboratories and corporate offices. In addition, we are noted for the design of innovative and affordable residences.

Commitment to Quality and Service

Miller|Hull's excellent record of performance proves our dedication to being a service-oriented firm. We have built a strong reputation and have been rewarded for our efforts by repeat commissions from clients such as the University of Washington, Washington State University, Seattle Pacific University, the cities of Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Auburn and others. Miller|Hull is highly skilled at project management and through excellent communication, accurate scheduling and cost control, is able to bring projects in on time and on budget with minimal clarification required during the construction phase.

Commitment to Design

The Miller|Hull Partnership's design reputation is based on simple, innovative and authentic designs. Since its inception in 1977 the firm has pursued a rigorous logic in its design approach in the belief that architectural programs are best solved directly and efficiently. Throughout the firm's history Miller|Hull has received over one hundred seventy design awards and has been published in numerous national and foreign design journals. Miller|Hull's design philosophy centers around two essential architectural ideas. One is to use a building's structure to create a significant place within a site, and the other is to be sensitive to climate and to respond to environmental demands with the form of the building. These ideas evolve from an appreciation of the extraordinary beauty of the natural environment and have allowed Miller|Hull's projects to have an unusually clear fit to their surrounding context. Founding partners David Miller and Robert Hull, both raised in Washington State, have explored the development of two dominant themes in America's western regional architecture: the need to establish a defined place within the landscape and the art of rational building. Their attitude toward building in the landscape takes advantage of a mutual inflection in which architecture and landscape seem to need each other for completion. In their residential architecture they attempt to capture the spirit and vitality of the West by focusing on the tensions between nature and materiality; detail and structure.

Miller|Hull is a firm that will always work within the modern tradition, and recognizes modern ideology as evolving and not static. Miller|Hull strives to make a significant contribution to a better modernism.