Miller Hull

The firm’s San Diego studio follows its Seattle studio in meeting this rigorous performance standard, making all Miller Hull’s offices Petal certified.

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

SAN DIEGO, May 15, 2020 – On Friday, May 7, 2020, The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP, an award-winning architecture, planning, urban and interior design firm, earned Living Building Challenge Petal Certification for the renovation of its San Diego studio. The San Diego studio follows the firm’s Seattle studio in meeting this rigorous performance standard, making all of Miller Hull’s offices Petal certified.

“I’m proud of the commitment Miller Hull has made beyond their project work – to be accountable for their own operations and now have all of their own offices Living Building Challenge certified,” said Miller Hull Living Building Challenge Services Director Chris Hellstern. “It’s a significant achievement for the building industry because it continues to show the Living Buildings can be built in any climate with any building type and in this case, a commercial tenant improvement.”

The Miller Hull San Diego studio is the first project certified under the fourth version of the Living Building Challenge (LBC 4.0), which continues the standard’s mission of visionary, but attainable building goals, while focusing on the relationship between impact and effort in the design and construction industry.

Presented by the International Living Future Institute, Petal Certification falls under the larger Living Building Challenge program and is awarded to projects that achieve at least three complete Petals, or performance areas, out of the seven total Petals (Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty). One of the three completed Petals must be the Energy, Water or Materials Petal.

The San Diego studio successfully pursued six of the seven Petals (Place, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty), which includes achieving Net Zero Energy through the Energy Petal. Supporting the firm’s mission, building owner GB Capital allowed Miller Hull to install a 24-kW photovoltaic array on the roof of the building and seriously commit to energy conservation within office operations.

Located in The Wharf at Point Loma Marina – which was Miller Hull’s first project in San Diego designed by its late founding partner, Robert Hull – the primary drivers of the San Diego studio renovation were occupant health and comfort considerations.

“This was a homecoming for us in many ways,” said Miller Hull Principal Ben Dalton, design lead on the project. “Inhabiting a space designed by Bob Hull, my mentor and one of our firm’s founders, has been a very special experience for me personally, and we now get to benefit from the amazing building he designed. We also get to take pride in helping complete Bob’s commitment to ecological and social betterment by creating a collaborative, open office setting that engages and inspires our staff.”

Completed by a team of DPR Construction, PAE Engineers, A.B. Court & Associates, Apex Mechanical Systems, and Ickler Electric, Miller Hull’s new San Diego studio celebrates the view of San Diego Bay. Daylight and fresh, outside air can be accessed from almost anywhere in the space through manually operated, full-height windows. As part of the Materials Petal, extensive effort was put toward eliminating harmful chemicals on the Living Building Challenge Red List, using regional materials and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

“Once again, Miller Hull is out front on an incredibly beautiful and innovative project,” said Jason F. McLennan, founder of the Living Building Challenge and board member of the International Living Future Institute. “As the first certification under LBC 4.0, Miller Hull is demonstrating the practicality and scalability of Living Buildings, in this case in a leased commercial build out.”

For more information about Miller Hull’s San Diego studio renovation or the firm’s other work, call (619) 220-0984 or visit www.millerhull.com.

About The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP is an architecture, planning, urban and interior design firm that creates dynamic and environmentally responsible buildings, striving for a regenerative and inclusive future. The firm has a studio in Seattle and San Diego with work extending across typologies for public and private clients, including single-family, multi-family, mixed-use, civic, commercial, institutional, higher education, K-12 schools, community, cultural, hospitality, gateways, public safety and sustainable infrastructure. Widely recognized for innovative, timeless designs and a partnership-driven practice, Miller Hull has received over 350 local, regional and national awards for design excellence, including the AIA National Firm Award and Architect 50’s Top Firm for Sustainability. For more information, visit www.millerhull.com.

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Media Contact:
Katherine Misel, Communications Specialist
The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
kmisel@millerhull.com
206-254-2072