Photo courtesy Miller Hull
The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP, an architecture, planning, urban, and interior design firm, has earned the Living Building Challenge Petal Certification for its renovated San Diego studio.
The Miller Hull San Diego studio is the first project certified under the fourth version of the Living Building Challenge (LBC 4.0).
Presented by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), Petal Certification is awarded to projects achieving at least three complete Petals, or performance areas, out of the seven total Petals of place, water, energy, health and happiness, materials, equity, and beauty.
The San Diego studio successfully pursued six of the seven Petals (place, energy, health and happiness, materials, equity, and beauty), which includes achieving net-zero energy. Miller Hull also installed a 24-kW photovoltaic (PV) array on the roof of the building and commits 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 studio renovation were occupant health and comfort considerations.
Completed by the team of DPR Construction, PAE Engineers, A.B. Court & Associates, Apex Mechanical Systems, and Ickler Electric, Miller Hull’s studio celebrates the view of San Diego Bay. 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 LBC Red List, using regional materials and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
“I am 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 Chris Hellstern, Miller Hull Living Building Challenge services director. “It is a significant achievement for the building industry because it continues to show Living Buildings can be built in any climate with any building type and in this case, a commercial tenant improvement.”
