In Memoriam: Architect Peter Millard, Won Awards for Firehouse Designs

Peter Millard, architect and retired member of the faculty of the Yale School of Architecture, died on March 30, at Connecticut Hospice in Branford, Connecticut. He was 84 years old.

Millard, who earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Yale in 1951, was a student of — and greatly influenced by — both the architect Louis Kahn and the philosopher Paul Weiss. He contributed many articles to the Yale journal Perspecta, and, as a partner at the firm of Earl P. Carlin, Architects was responsible for the design of two firehouses in New Haven which won awards from Progressive Architecture in the 1960s.

At that time Robert A.M. Stern, then one of Millard’s students and now dean of the Yale School of Architecture, wrote the following in an article about the work of the firm:

“It is not surprising that the Central Headquarters Building should be so disarming, even to Johnson. Its deft combination of romanticizing form (reminiscent of Saarinen’s Stiles and Morse Colleges, Yale) and a ruthlessly thought out integration of function, structure and space (derived from Kahn’s notions of ‘servant’ and ‘served’) certainly points to a new direction in American architecture - one which, in its enthusiastic response to the larger needs of environment as well as to the specifics of the program to be housed within, marks a return to architecture that is monumental and urban and public, in the best sense of that word.”

Millard was born in New York City (Richmond) on May 2, 1924, to Jesse Charles Millard, attorney at Cravath, Swain and Moore in New York City, and Gladys Barr. He grew up on Staten Island and attended Staten Island Academy. He studied architecture at Dartmouth College (B.A. 1946) and at Yale. He became a naval aviator during World War II. After the war he practiced architecture in New Haven, and for 40 years taught architectural design at the Yale School of Architecture.

He was an accomplished sailor, a fellow of Calhoun College at Yale and an active participant in the activities of the Billingsgate Trust.

Millard is survived by his wife, Sharon Carter Matthews; his children, Karie Miller of North Eastham, Massachusetts, and Michael Millard of Chelsea, Vermont; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brother, John; his sister, Jean; and his first wife, Margaret Kerr Leathers.

His burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery, to be scheduled later this year. There will be a private family celebration of his life in Providence, Rhode Island, on his birthday. Gifts in memory of Peter Millard for student scholarships may be made out to Yale University and sent to the Yale School of Architecture Dean’s Office, P.O. Box 208242, New Haven, CT 06520-8242.