Caroline Millett Bio and Resume

Caroline Millett has had a lifetime of experience in three seemingly disparate professions: Diplomacy, real estate development, and residential design.

As an over-educated but under-skilled single woman, she got her first big break when she entered the Foreign Service. After earning her M.A. in cultural history at Stanford, Millett went on to complete three more years of graduate course work in education and design. At the University of Wisconsin, Millett received a B.A. in U.S. history and comparative literature, with a years’ interlude at the University of Edinburgh (where she concentrated on fine art and architectural history).

Eager to go to work in the ‘real world,’ Millett was delighted when the U.S. Information Agency posted her in Sao Paulo. Here she had the remarkable opportunity to found and direct a brand-new American-Brazilian Binational Center. Ultimately she was promoted to the position of Cultural Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, at the age of 29.

Toward the end of Millett’s tour of duty, she began to recognize the darker side of political life. In the 1960’s and 1970’s torture was a horrifyingly common practice in Brazil. Victims included liberals and intellectuals whom Millett met at seminars she taught at the University of Sao Paulo. Official American policy was in line with the fascist regime’s much-publicized slogan; “There is no torture in Brazil.” By the time Millett reached Brasilia, she vociferously opposed her own government’s ignorant position, and she would have been sent home in disgrace but for future President Jorge Figueiredo’s patronage.

This was a major turning point in her career. She took a leave of absence, and subsequently managed to arrange assignments in Washington exclusively within the realm of arts and culture. Over a period of eleven years she worked on a number of different projects. Millett directed architectural studies programs for all posts overseas, coordinated international arts exhibitions (including Sao Paulo and Venice Biennials), and produced film clips regularly featuring Secretary of State Kissinger. She also acted as a State Department delegate , first as Executive Secretary of the U.S. Inter-Agency Committee on the Arts, and then as a delegate to the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Toward the end of this stint she was awarded the title of “Advisor on the Arts.”

When Millett moved to Washington she bought the only beautiful old house she could possibly afford - a dreary and dilapidated Edwardian townhouse in Logan Circle. Finally she had the opportunity to practice what she preached. She preserved all of its historic features and used modern methods to create sunny, open interiors. Louis Kahn, a superb architect whom she had featured in USIA’s “thematic programs,” showed her how to create light and space. One freezing winter she also became friends with Plumbley the Plumber, who traded her a new furnace for 52 home cooked dinners. By the end of a year, Plumbley had taught her the “how to’s” of working with contractors. (Example of a Plumbley Principle: Pick your plumbers, electricians, roofers, and masons by their character since you never really know what they are doing.) After converting her home into three rental apartment units, Millett began buying similarly ancient wrecks, along with parking lots and liquor stores. By the time she left Washington in the early 1980’s, Millett had bought, renovated, and sold over 100 properties. Much to her surprise, she had become a serious businesswoman.

In 1982 Philadelphia provided her with a new opportunity - helping her former Foreign Service boss turn a local arts college into the University of the Arts. She took the job of Vice President in charge of public relations, special events, art gallery, and fund raising. After the university was formally established she returned to real estate development full time. Millett took a great liking to University City, in West Philadelphia, where she could renovate some more wonderful old houses and teach interior design at the University of Pennsylvania. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment was the total renovation of a city block formerly owned by the Catholic Church – a vacant school, rectory, and cathedral-sized church buried deep within the slums. This 165-unit project offered her the opportunity to restore a troubled neighborhood, and at the same time, provide moderate income housing for both university people and existing neighbors. During this period, Millett was very active in community service. She was appointed Trustee of several major Philadelphia foundations and the Preservation Alliance honored her for most outstanding contributions to the interior design profession.

By 1990, Millett realized that the work she best enjoyed always involved designing and art collecting. She began designing professionally for clients, just as she had for herself in many projects. She learned how to subordinate her own ego and help others tell their own stories in their own homes, “Narrative Style.” Moreover, teaching in Penn’s continuing education programs allowed her to discover new, intensely interactive ways to help students edit and refine their work. For fourteen years she taught a number of different interior design courses. Subjects included: period and contemporary styles, personalized color schemes, collecting and exhibiting arts and crafts, renovating and arranging space, and most importantly, developing personal stylistic expression. She built her own firm, Millett Design, specializing in residential design and fine arts consulting throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean. The firm provides a wide range of services, from short-term color consultations to full-scale renovations. She has also published interior design columns called “Narrative Style,” and wrote Re-Designing Design: A Guide to Personal Environments.

More recently, she and Emmy-award winning writer/director Susan Baronoff have produced and co-created a television show entitled “Intimate Spaces.” Their goal is to reach a wide audience of Americans who seek to create genuinely fine design in their own most personal spaces.

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