Peter Trapolin, a New Orleans architect acclaimed for his work in preserving buildings and designing structures that blended with their environments, died Saturday of cancer in his New Orleans home. He was 70.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was skilled as a classical architect, and he understood modern architecture, and he brought them together,\u201d said Tony Gelderman, a businessman and preservationist. \u201cHe understood the vernacular of New Orleans, and he brought that to his practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
His firm, Trapolin-Peer Architects, which he founded in 1981, has designed buildings across the Gulf Coast. In New Orleans, the firm\u2019s projects include the Sazerac House; the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation headquarters; the Historic New Orleans Collection; the Lafayette Hotel; Richardson Memorial Hall, where Trapolin studied architecture at Tulane University; and the 19th-century Warehouse District building that houses P\u00eache Seafood Grill.<\/p>\n
That structure, which Gelderman and his wife, Katherine, owned, once housed the mortuary where Jefferson Davis was embalmed after the former Confederate president died in the Garden District.<\/p>\n
Restoring it to its former glory was a challenge, Gelderman said. In addition to heavy termite damage, there seemed to be no way to tell how to proceed because an earlier owner had stripped the building of its distinctive ornamentation, including an elaborate balcony and detailed window treatments.<\/p>\n
But luck was with Trapolin because he was given an old photograph of the structure at Magazine and Julia streets. \u201cPeter was able to take the photograph and convert it into very accurate drawings and convert it back,\u201d Gelderman said. \u201cVery few people could have done that. It was a great accomplishment that I was privileged to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such scrupulous attention to detail was a hallmark of Trapolin\u2019s work, said Paula Peer, who succeeded Trapolin as the firm\u2019s president.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a steward of preservation and advocating for the preservation of our historic city,\u201d she said. \u201cThe buildings are the place where the culture happens. He had 45 years of expertise of modifying and updating these historic buildings and doing new construction in a historic context.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he loved the city more than anything,\u201d said Kathryn LeMieux, a niece. \u201cHe wanted to restore and honor its history and legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lifelong New Orleanian, Trapolin graduated from De La Salle High School and Tulane University. He was among the first to see the potential of the Warehouse District, which before the 1980s had been a collection of industrial buildings going to seed. In fact, Peer said, Trapolin\u2019s first office had been a flophouse.<\/p>\n
The 1984 world\u2019s fair drew developers\u2019 attention to that part of the city. Trapolin, who played a key role in its revitalization, bought a townhouse there and set up headquarters three blocks away for his firm, which employs 24 people.<\/p>\n