Robert Miller

Robert Miller AIA is a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Arizona after retiring from UArizona on January 1, 2023. He joined CAPLA in 2010 as director of the School of Architecture. Holding a BA in Architecture from Clemson (1976) and an M. Arch with a Certificate in Urban Design from Rice (1979), Miller worked for several firms in the south before starting his own practice in 1986. An adjunct at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, he taught at Clemson University from 1990-2010, serving as Professor-in-Residence at the Daniel Center in Genoa, Italy (1997-1999) and Director of the Clemson Architecture Center in Charleston (2000-2010). Under Miller’s leadership, the Charleston center won three NCARB Prizes for the Creative Integration of Practice and Education, plus the AIA’s Best Mentoring Practices award. In 2009 he was awarded the ACSA Creative Achievement Award for design/build work. Miller was awarded a fellowship to the American Academy in Rome (1997) for his integrated teaching and practice. He won first prize in the Präsenz der Zeit—2010 competition in Braunschweig, Germany (2004). His artist book, Implementing Architecture (Nexus Press, 1988), won First Place and Grand-Prize in MACWORLD’s graphic design competition (1989) and is the collections of major national art museums. Miller’s pedagogical focus has been “hybrid learning”: merging educational content with professional practices. From urban design to design/build installations, he has developed a teaching method around service-learning. Most of his published scholarship, appearing in Europe, South America, and the US, explores this territory. Since Miller became Director of the School, its Master of Architecture degree has been accredited; the Bachelor of Architecture degree has been ranked by the Design Futures Council in the top-20 nationally for three of the last four years; and the School has adopted the only sustainability protocol in the United States that spans all studios in a degree program. In 2014, Miller was named Educator of the Year by AIA Arizona. He is currently President of AIA-Southern Arizona and completing his second year as Co-Chair of UA HeadsUp, the association of UA department heads.