John Miller was born in London in 1930, his parents the owners of the renowned Durrants Hotel in Marylebone. He attended The Hall School in Hampstead, followed by Charterhouse School in Godalming. After leaving school he undertook compulsory National Service and it was at the British Army’s barracks in Benghazi, Libya, that he sat the entrance exam for the Architectural Association, entering as a First Year student in 1950. As part of his final year’s studies, in 1954-55, Miller joined the first cohort of the newly formed AA Department of Tropical Architecture, living with fellow DTA students, Kenneth Frampton, Ram Karmi and David Jackson. Upon graduation, he joined the London practice of Lyons, Israel and Ellis, where he worked for three years before briefly being employed by Sir Lesley Martin, in Cambridge. In 1961, together with fellow AA graduate, Alan Colquhoun, Miller founded the practice of Colquhoun and Miller – a partnership that was to last until Colquhoun’s retirement in 1990, whereupon the practice continued as John Miller and Partners. Amongst their early works are his Louis Khan inspired Forest Gate High School (1965) and the High-Tech Pillwood House (1974), near Truro, designed with Miller’s future wife, Su Rogers (who was to become a partner at the practice from 1986). Museum work became something of a speciality, with an acclaimed renovation and extension to the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1987), the remodelling of the Serpentine Tea House, Kensington Gardens, into the Serpentine Gallery (1998), major additions and renovations at Tate Britain, Millbank (2001) and the courtyard extension at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2004). Alongside his architectural practice, Miller was also an educator, serving as visiting critic for many institutions including Cornell University (1966-1971) and Princeton University (1971). In 1975 he was appointed to a professorship at the Royal College of Art, transforming what was originally an interior design department into a RIBA Part 1 accredited three-year architecture course. Miller was awarded a CBE for services to architecture in 2006.
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