Miller Hull

After seven years of consequential projects and growth, our San Diego studio has come home. In 2018, the studio moved to a larger space in The Wharf at Point Loma Marina, which was the firm’s first project in San Diego and was designed by our late founding partner, Robert Hull. With sustainability at the heart of our work, we designed a tenant improvement for our new space that is pursuing Living Building Challenge Petal certification.

Practicing what we preach, we wanted our San Diego studio to reflect our commitment to ecological improvement. In 2017, our Seattle studio renovation achieved Petal certification for Place, Materials, Equity and Beauty. Taking lessons learned from the Seattle studio, the new San Diego studio is pursuing the same four performance areas, or Petals. Beyond those, we were also able to add the Health & Happiness Petal, as well as the Energy Petal with the cooperation of our landlord by installing a 24 kW PV array to the roof and a battery backup system to achieve Net Zero Energy.

In addition to certification, the primary drivers of the San Diego renovation were occupant health and comfort considerations. 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, the design team put extensive effort toward eliminating harmful chemicals from the Living Building Challenge Red List, using regional materials and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Celebrating the view of San Diego Bay, the new Miller Hull San Diego studio creates a collaborative, open office setting that engages and inspires our studio and its visitors. The project achieved Petal certification in May 2020.

Project Team

Architect: The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP
Contractor: DPR Construction
Structural Engineer: A.B. Court & Associate
Conceptual Mechanical Design: PAE
Mechanical Design-Builder: Apex Mechanical Systems
Electrical Design-Builder: Ickler Electric