Some Architect is an American bootstrap story and a roaming European grand journey, with technical enough inclusion of architectural nuts and bolts to give the craft more than a minor role. It is remarkably busy but maintains a sense of lightness and whimsy throughout. For something half architectural compendium and half historical narrative, there is a personality that works beyond genre. It serves as a reference text for scholars and enthusiasts of the period, while the storytelling serves readers who simply love a good narrative.
Peter J. Weber had a strong professional relationship with G. Stanley Wilson, a prominent Riverside architect and recognized master of Spanish Revival style. This partnership produced some of the Mission Inn's most beloved elements, including the rotunda and St. Francis Chapel. The rotunda is considered Weber's most important contribution to the landmark hotel. He also worked with Julia Morgan, builder of Hearst Castle and many other significant California buildings, including the YWCA building that now houses the Riverside Art Museum. Some Architect serves as a comprehensive compendium on the work of someone who seemed to be in all the right places during what many consider the best era of architecture in California.
The documentation of Weber's work is sufficient to consider this a reference text for scholars and enthusiasts of the period. Like so many stories of the interwar era, the Great Depression proves to be an important pivot point in California architecture, in Weber's life and career, and in the book.
As new contracts began to dry up, Peter and his girlfriend Clara decided to ride out what they hoped would be the worst of the depression in Europe, leaving behind the looming prospect of a major commission on a new post office in Redlands.
"Peter said he was thinking about taking a year-long break from the Wilson firm to travel across Europe and North Africa during the economic slowdown. Clara, having just been to Europe the previous summer, invited herself to come along on his upcoming trip as a travel companion - but she explained there was a hitch. Unless they were married, their expenses for accommodations and travel might double in many cases. Decency standards prevented them from sharing the same hotel room or ship cabin. Frugal Peter felt marriage was a savvy idea and he agreed to her sly proposal." -Stolte
They eschewed a fancy wedding to afford travel expenses, including the compact Leica Model C that Weber used to document the people and places along their way. The European trip reads as somewhere between a parenthetical narrative and a dream sequence. Two young lovers on a year-long trek across France, Italy, Spain, and Morocco in a tiny Peugeot coupe. Stolte tells the story of their travels honestly, with the ups and downs of young romance without familiar support, played out in the tight spaces of traveling on a budget even if over a geographically large area. He tells of fine dining in Austria and roadside picnics in France.
Weber had been well trained as a classical architect. His travels in Europe showed him plenty of the buildings he had studied in school. What he may not have expected was to be so transformed by the vernacular, something that would show heavily in his later work. This transformation, from classical training to an appreciation of how ordinary people built personal spaces, becomes the through-line of Weber's mature style. Stolte's telling of the Webers' travels in interwar Europe is a snapshot of places and ways of life that no longer exist in modernity. This section has real weight as historical documentation beyond its role in Weber's biography.
Upon their return to the United States, Weber bought land at the end of Eighth Street (now University Avenue) and built his house in the groves just outside the city limits. Clara managed their grove while Peter designed some of the most recognizable buildings in the city. The house he built is anything but grand, but it shows his love for the vernacular - the sense of lightness that a carving or piece of trim can bring to a massive beam, reminders of those small European towns all over the place. After nearly four decades, the Webers moved to the coast in Leucadia. The house still stands: it's owned by the Courtyard by Marriott and leased by the Old Riverside Foundation, where it serves as their headquarters.
Stolte serves as ORF president and West as Weber House caretaker, and their passion for the Weber legacy is the engine behind this book. West's sounding-board companionship with Stolte during the project created a greater-than-its-parts symbiosis; the book would not have happened without her initial spark. Stolte's craft goes beyond standard architectural biography. He opens with twelve-year-old Peter Joseph falling out of bed during the 1906 earthquake and closes with ninety-year-old Pete falling out of bed in an elder-care home, confused and calling for Clara.
"Twelve-year-old Peter Joseph fell out of bed and landed hard on his left side. Stunned for a moment, he struggled to make sense of what had just happened - how he had gone from peaceful sleep to lying in pain on the floor in an instant."
This cinematic bookending is more artistic than what most historical writers indulge. His designer's eye allows comfort with both artful narrative and technical language, tying sections together with details like comparing the couple's route to Europe with Weber's route to architectural school - both serving as gateways to formative endeavors. Some Architect has a lot to offer. For something both architectural compendium and historical narrative, there is a personality that goes beyond genre. The type of story that would have made a great film when great films were being made. It's a love story, a glimpse into a forgotten time in lost places, a California story, and especially a Riverside story. Stolte and West's love for all of those elements shines through. There is a nuance required to tie these elements together that comes only from a most intimate understanding of the subject. I see no reason why a novel-only reader wouldn't love to read this book.
More information: Some Architect is available for purchase at this Saturday's Doors Open event and at old-riverside-foundation-shop.
Correction- Thur. Oct. 23, 2025 8:14 a.m.
In a previous version of this review, we incorrectly stated that the Weber House was owned by the Riverside Historical Society. The property is actually owned by the Courtyard by Marriott and leased by the Old Riverside Foundation, where it serves as ORF headquarters. We also misidentified RuthWest as vice president; she serves as Weber House caretaker. Additionally, Peter Weber's final residence was in an elder-care home, not specifically in Leucadia.
