Best known for the Christchurch Town Hall and Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre, Sir Miles Warren is the doyen of post-war New Zealand architecture, the first New Zealander to be knighted for services to architecture, an Icon of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, and a leading figure in the arts in Christchurch. The garden at his Governors Bay home, Ohinetahi, beautifully crafted by Miles with his sister Pauline Trengrove and her husband John, has also secured for him a reputation as one of our most remarkable garden designers.

The exhibition Miles: a life in architecture, mounted in celebration of Miles's 80th birthday, presents him as an architect, as a traveller and watercolourist, as a sensitive designer working within the constraints of heritage build- ings as diverse as St Augustine's Church, Christ's College, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and New Zealand Parliament House, and as a gardener.

Miles Warren began his career in architecture as a sixteen-year old pupil of Cecil Wood, while studying in the evenings at the Christchurch Atelier - part of a distance learning programme for architectural students unable to study at the University of Auckland's School of Architecture. After a period combining work and on-the-job training, with evening class work at the Atelier, Miles moved to Auckland to complete his studies as a full-time student.