George Miers
Born in Fort Worth, Texas and raised in San Francisco, George Miers received his undergraduate education at Washington University’s School of Architecture in St. Louis. In addition to being a founding member of the first school of Architecture and Social Work joint degree program, he had the opportunity to study under a wonderfully diverse group of architects including Charles Moore, Ricardo Legoretta and Dolf Schnebli.
Completing his Masters of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, Mr. Miers, began practicing in San Francisco during the mid 70’s as a designer at Kaplan Mclaughlin and Diaz Architects and Skidmore Owings and Merrill on a wide range of large scale, special use building types. During this time frame he was asked by California’s recently designated State Architect, Sim Van der Ryn, to join a newly formed architectural programming unit whose task was to set the design and energy standards for all future State of California buildings.
In the course of setting these standards, Mr. Miers wrote the guidelines and user program for the State’s first Energy Efficient Office Building in 1976 which launched a series of energy-efficient facility designs throughout the state. The program for these facilities, while focused on sustainable architecture, placed an emphasis on balancing user comfort and operational needs within the framework of a strong architectural design. This directive – to integrate strong architectural principles with the user and operational needs in a meaningful manner that facilitates the user’s programs – formed the underlying design approach of George Miers and Associates, which opened in San Francisco in 1982.
During the firm’s 27 years of practice, prior to merging with Swatt Architects in 2009, Mr. Miers designed a diverse portfolio of award-winning public service buildings including Police Facilities, Civic Centers, Libraries, and Animal Care Facilities. Many of these facilities such as the Antioch and Lodi Police Facilities and the San Diego Campus for Animal Care have set the standard for these building types throughout North America.