The Units interviews George Miller FAIA
Partner at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

By Douglas Newkirk, 5th year student

Units:  First off, when did you graduate from Penn State University?

George Miller: I graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree.  In early 1974, I went back and forth between Philadelphia and New York City looking for a job.  It was a recessionary period then so it was difficult to find many opportunities. I accepted a position with Henry C. K. Liu, an architect in New York who was designing building projects for the Rockefeller family as well as acting as a developer for several others. I stayed there a year prior to joining I.M. Pei & Partners in 1975. I have been here for 26 years. [Miller became a partner in 1989 at age 40.]

Units:  Did you go on to get your Master’s degree?

GM:  No.  Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is essentially a graduate school in itself.  I just came here and began working with I. M. Pei on a four-million-square-foot, 72-story project [Raffles International Center] in Singapore. The project was huge below grade, which was the portion to which I was assigned, so I never really got above grade for my first project, which was a little depressing for a young architect.  It was an interesting assignment though, because I worked on construction drawings my first year and learned a great deal.

Units:  What would you say was most memorable from your years in architecture at PSU?

GM:  I participated in a study abroad program, such as you have now, but then it was in the town of San Lencio, just north of Naples, where we studied a utopian community established by a Bourbon king of Naples. We studied the transformation of the community over time, concentrating on the physical changes. With our professor, Richard Plunz [now at Columbia University], we documented our studies in a publication called San Lencio: Traditions in Transition. The experience was a lot of fun and we learned a great deal about life.  To this day several of us maintain our relationships with members of the community.

Units:  Could you describe some of your current international projects?

GM:  Right now we’re working on the World Trade Center in Barcelona—a beautiful city. The project has been designed not as one large structure but as a cluster of buildings that shape major public spaces. It consists of three curved components (office buildings) sitting on a connecting one-story plinth that frames a central courtyard. Dominating its center is a crossing grid of water jets programmed to create continuously evolving geometric patterns. The Trade Center is complemented on the fourth side by a curved gateway building that has been designed to house a 235-room hotel.  It’s an exciting project because it is situated on the pier at the foot of Las Ramblas near the Gothic quarter of the city. The sequence of public spaces created will link the pier with its larger urban setting. The views from the offices are tremendous. It’s to open in March of next year. Originally our client wanted this project completed for the Barcelona Olympics, so you can tell how long it takes to design and build some of these projects.

Another project I was recently involved with is the Tour EDF at La Défense in Paris, the headquarters for the electric company in France—a truly tour-de-force project.

Located on the last remaining unbuilt parcel along the elevated pedestrian mall of La Défense, the tower faces the historical Louvre/Champs Elysées/Etoile axis, which terminates just to the west in the Grande Arche. The distinctive form of this office tower has its origin in our conviction that the privilege of building on this key site carries with it a corollary obligation to enrich the public realm of La Défense. Hence we have shaped the tower in such a way that it does not stand aloof from the dalle but rather makes an engaging gesture toward the Parvis de la Défense.

I am also working with I. M. Pei on a museum of contemporary art in Luxembourg, which actually began as a museum of modern art.  When the building’s mission was changed to display contemporary art, we had to rethink the space that one needs for contemporary art, as well as the special lighting requirements.

Units:  Are you involved in any international competitions?

GM:  We are going to do a six-week competition for a prominent office building in Madrid that involves our firm, KPF, Helmut Jahn, and Richard Rogers. We do this type of competition from time to time. We are also competing against Ricardo Bofill, David Chipperfield, Richard Rogers and others for a regional judicial center in Barcelona. We prefer to receive our new commissions as a result of an interview process, but some competitions are difficult to resist.

Units:  How would you describe the practice at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners?

GM:  All of our design work is done in our New York office. This is where our partners are located, and we’ve organized it this way to maintain close control over our design efforts. Our process is very team oriented and we develop the design ideas face to face in our design studios. For projects at a great distance from our New York office, we often work in association with local architectural and engineering firms. We send our staff all over the world to work on our projects, sometimes for long periods of time. For us, our focus remains on design at all times.

Units:  What is your responsibility in the firm?

GM:  I’m the managing partner of the firm.  Our organization is set up so that we have a design partner and a managing partner for every project, and I tend to get involved with everything in the office in one way or another.

Then there are a few projects where I am involved more heavily, for instance the World Headquarters of ABN-AMRO Bank in Amsterdam, a project of over one million square feet. Two banks, ABN and AMRO, merged, and they were looking for a new signature building for their bank. Designed to maximize its key location, the building complex proceeded from the premise that architecture can, and should, shape human awareness. It aimed to foster a strong sense of corporate community and shared purpose—an esprit de corps—that engenders pride in those who serve the bank as well as those it serves. In an extended design process that shaped the building down to its smallest details, the goal was to provide a strongly representational head office, a work of architecture as richly satisfying in its internal experiential qualities as it is powerfully emblematic to the outside world.

Units:  How have you chosen to stay involved with PSU?

GM:  I have not stayed involved as much as I would like. A group of fifth-year students did recently visit our office, and I have visited the department from time to time as a guest lecturer and critic. However, as you know, the only way to get to Penn State from New York is to drive, and it has been tough to fit that in with such a busy work and travel schedule.

Units:  How has architectural education changed since you were at Penn State?

GM:  Dramatically. When I graduated, we were still doing presentation drawings with parallel edges and ink pens, and now the education process includes using computers for design studies, modeling, and 3D animation. It’s interesting to think about where education is today and how it really considers the marketplace. This firm is generally considered a large one, with 125 people, but we like to think of it as a big small firm.

The students we look to attract are those who have the skills to be really productive in our office. There are many different levels. When we look at a portfolio, we’re certainly looking at the student’s design skills, but also at the capability to think and reason, to think about space and light, and the quality of the environment. That’s very important to us. We also look to see the level of expertise in terms of rendering those specific ideas. Everyone who comes into this office uses computers, doing 3D renderings and AutoCAD.  We also do some physical modeling using both in-house and specialty model builders. We look for someone who is well trained as a young architect, so that they can contribute to the design process. Essentially, the information is not so different from what was required generations ago, when architects used ink on linen. The idea is to get across to someone how to construct a building.  It’s about the quality of the end product that someone sees.

In small offices, architects are getting exposed to a broad practice.  For example, if you’re designing a house or an interior renovation, you’ll be working on everything from the design through to construction documents, and even working out in the field, helping with construction issues.  You’ll see a very broad range of aspects of the project and will work on several projects simultaneously. In a large office such as ours, one tends to come in and work on a portion of a large project for a year or even longer. The profession can be rewarding in many different ways. For me, the opportunity to contribute in some small way to the enrichment of our public spaces and the quality of our built environment has been a great reward.