William Harry Hillier [also known as W. Harry Hillier and as Harry Hillier was born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia on 11 May 1891. While working as chief draughtsman at the firm of Laird & Buchan in Geelong from 1908 to 1912, he attended the Gordon Institute of Technology in Geelong where he was awarded a master’s degree in art, sculpture and architecture in 1912. He then moved to London, England where he worked on projects with the American architect Charles Howard Crane (1885-1952) from 1913 to 1915, following which he moved to Los Angeles and with E. Alan Sheet (1898-1948) established the architecture and engineering firm Hillier & Sheet. During the 1920s and early 1930s they designed numerous apartment buildings and hotels in the Los Angeles area.
While working as a partner of Hillier & Sheet, Hillier again worked with Crane from 1934 to 1945. His address was given as 7 Tideswell Road, Croydon, Surrey, England in 1939. Most of the projects on which he was engaged during this period were for buildings in the London area, including the Earls Court Exhibition Building, & Gaumont Theatre, Holloway, London, in 1939; Briggs Motor Bodies Plants, Dagenham, London in 1942-43; Vlcker-Armstrong Airplanes Works in Weybridge, Surrey in 1943; and the Airport Terminal & Hangers, Feltham, London, in 1944.
Hillier eventually started his own firm, W. Harry Hillier, based in Los Angeles in 1948. He appears to have been less productive as an architect in his later years.
He was a member of the Southern California chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He died in Los Angeles, California on 16 January 1982,
American Institute of Architects. American Architects Directory. New York, NY: R.R. Bowker, 1956
American Institute of Architects. American Architects Directory. New York, NY: R.R. Bowker, 1962