VERTICES
Winter 2021-22 20222022
Michael E. Peters Attorney
Jamey’s Enoteca, Philadelphia, PA
MICHAEL E. PETERS, RA, ESQ. (B.Arch. ‘82, Temple University, J.D. ‘97) After graduation, with Lou Inserra’s encouragement, I was lucky enough to work for several great Pennsylvania architects, including Peter Bohlin (where two of Lou’s thesis students still work!), and the team of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown — all peak experiences. Lou was proud of us all. Subsequently, I had my own short-lived practice highlighted by a Venturi-esque wine bar. The pictured project is Jamey’s Enoteca, a renovation of a wine bar in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia. I had great clients, with a clear vision and ready team of collaborators. The project received Honorable Mention from Philadelphia AIA in 1991. Working for great architects was professionally rewarding, but not remunerative. Practicing architecture was not going to get any better, and becoming the next Lou Inserra (teacher/practitioner, with white sneakers, tweed jacket and family tuition benefits) was no longer realistic. By that time of the recession of early 1990’s, I had two daughters to put through school, and needed a more reliable career plan.
I realized that I was of more value to the profession in a ‘gear-head’ supporting role, instead of trying to compete with designers with more passion and flair who also had the resources to pick and choose the best work.
In 2007, I opened my own hybrid solo practice in Swarthmore, PA, as a combination construction attorney and architectural design expert, and have managed to stay busy and useful for 14 years. I have been fortunate to assist several of my Penn State school mates with their legal needs: review of owner-architect contracts, occasional disputes, and business succession planning. For the last several years, thanks to the internet and in part due to COVID-19, I have done so from a virtual office in remote and sunny locations, including Valencia, España and Costa Rica.
When we learned that Lou Inserra passed in June 2020, many of my classmates of ‘82 had the same idea for a fitting memori al: n amin g th e Architectural Reading Room in his honor. No day in our Thesis studio was complete without a trip with Lou to the library, to pore over gigantic old books of beautiful drawings by one of his favorite architects. If something you had drawn reminded him of Aalto, or Lutyens, or Robert Venturi—off you went. You never got tired of it, and neither did Lou.
No one was surprised when I applied to law school (a friend remarked, “you’re just like those people”). I realized that I was of more value to the profession in a ‘gear-head’ supporting role, instead of trying to compete with designers with more passion and flair who also had the resources to pick and choose the best work. But when I telephoned Lou for a letter of recommendation, he was clearly disappointed—“I thought you were going to ask for a recommendation for graduate school” in architecture. Sorry, maestro. Instead, I attended Temple University Beasley School of Law, and worked for ten years in several excellent large firms as a construction attorney (where I learned, among other useful things, that our time-honored practice of design-by-reference is essentially a copyright violation—gasp).
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PennState Architecture Alumni
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