By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
For the first time in 43 years, J. Robert Hillier will no longer report for work at the architecture firm he founded, built into one of the nation’s largest, then sold to Scottish firm RMJM in 2007.
While maintaining that his relationship with RMJM owners Sir Fraser Morrison and his son, Peter, was “excellent,” Mr. Hillier said Monday that for several reasons he decided that leaving was better than staying on. Under the terms of the merger agreement, by mutual consent between himself and the Morrisons, Mr. Hillier could have stayed with RMJM for five years following the merger.
Mr. Hillier has chosen to leave after only two of those five years because “it just got to the point where it seemed I had lots to do,” including overseeing projects of his personal real estate development firm Hillier Properties LLC, he said.
Mr. Hillier will continue to oversee two RMJM projects through completion, under a consulting agreement with RMJM: the design of the new University Medical Center of Princeton hospital complex in Plainsboro set for completion in 2011; and the new athletic center at the Peddie School in Hightstown, scheduled for completion later this year.
”Because of the nature of projects today it takes so long to do them,” Mr. Hillier said. If he took on new projects for RMJM they would extend far beyond his originally stipulated five-year transition period at the combined firm, he said. And several other projects he was to oversee are now dormant. “With this economy a lot of work has stopped,” he said.
”So I proposed that I leave and they accepted it,” he said.
”It seemed that after two years the transition was complete. All of my clients, except the Peddie project and the hospital, were now in a good state, they were nearing completion,” Mr. Hillier said. “I’d gotten to the point where everything was done and any new projects were going to go for longer than the five years.”
Was the decision to leave the firm he founded 43 years ago a bittersweet one?
”I actually feel really good about it because the opportunities RMJM is giving the staff are great,” Mr. Hillier replied. “I’m actually pretty proud, pretty happy. I don’t regret one day of those 43 years. On the other hand, I’m not all hung up on looking back on it either,” he said.
Mr. Hillier said the merger has resulted in “just a great boom for the staff, the nature of the work they are doing, the size of the projects are outrageous, it’s wonderful.”
Mr. Hillier said he has a noncompete agreement with RMJM for design services, but is able to design his own development projects for Hillier Properties.
”In a way I am going to be exploring the architecture of the future,” Mr. Hillier said of his future plans for Hillier Properties. “I think the way architecture is going is architects are going to become the developers of the future,” he said.
At a time when far more attention is paid to the sustainability, efficiency, environmental and other impact of a building project, and those factors become integral to its design, architects are regaining a historic role as “master builders,” according to Mr. Hillier.
Already adept at negotiating complicated project approvals for development clients, the next step for architects is to take on all roles in a project, including as financial backers, he said.
Among other projects, Hillier Properties’ project for age-restricted housing on Bunn Drive is moving forward, Mr. Hillier said.
Although his development firm currently does not have a home, often operating out of his New Hope, Pa., living room, Mr. Hillier said he is moving forward with plans to redevelop the property he acquired last year at 190-198 Witherspoon St. to house his development firm, as well as the staff of the online obituary magazine www.obit-mag.com he and his wife, Barbara, founded in 2007.
He said he hopes to receive zoning board permission March 26 to put a small Hillier Properties office on the Witherspoon Street site to supervise the project, in the former showroom of Jefferson Plumbing. A variance for the project is needed to move forward, which he hopes to obtain in the spring, Mr. Hillier said.

