29 May 2025 Welcome to the Board: Q&A with Steve Wilkes
Stephen Wilkes was appointed as a Director of Historic Boston Inc. at our last Quarterly Board Meeting. Stephen is the Chief Innovation Officer and Vice President at Feldman Geospatial, a land survey firm that HBI regularly calls on to help assess the feasibility of developing potential project sites. Most recently, Stephen conducted a survey of the Charlestown Pumping Station using Reality Capture with 3D modeling and kindly served as guest blogger to highlight the process on HBI’s website. Get to know Steve here with a brief Q & A.
1.) Where did you grow up and what led you to Boston?
I grew up in Birmingham England, attending the University of Birmingham, studying Archaeology, and later a Masters in Landscape Archaeology and Geomatics. I returned to work at the University in its applied Visual and Special Technology Center, I was fortunate to work on a number of international projects and there met my partner Dr. Meg Watters Wilkes. After seven years in England, we decided to make a move to the east coast USA in 2007 (Meg is originally from PA). We were fortunate to have previously connected with Michael Feldman while I was still in England and had a shared interest in laser scanning and historic preservation. After quite a few hurdles we settled just north of Boston, joined the community at Feldman Geospatial, and have been here ever since!
2. ) What attracted you to HBI and encouraged you to explore opportunities serving on our Board of Directors?
Boston has a complex and interwoven pre- and post-colonial fabric that is most visibly represented in its buildings and their landscape context. The story these buildings represent is important for local communities, their specific past use, and the integrity of telling their history into the future. I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked on several projects with HBI at Feldman Geospatial; the Fowler Clark Farm, Old Corner Book Store, and most recently the Charlestown Pumping Station to name but a few. Seeing from the outside the success and challenges faced in reinvigorating some of these historic sites into our shared history was always exciting. When coupled with my personal and past experience in historic preservation and landscape visualization it made for an exiting opportunity. Having met the people at the heart of HBI it reinforced that it was a mission I wanted to be part of.
3.) How would you describe the work you do to a layperson? What would you say is the most impactful project you’ve worked on?
Simply put, our role as a Geospatial company is to represent the measurable physical world, and the relation of existing structures and new developments or designs within it. Whether that be retracing the boundary of someone’s property, the 3D representation of existing structures from laser scanning, mapping the underground using geophysics, modeling in 3D, or guiding the layout of new buildings. We are fortunate to be involved in the whole lifecycle of our built environment, historic or next generation! It’s slightly ironic then that one of my favorite and potentially most impactful projects was not actually a building. Feldman was brought in by Mystic Seaport Museum’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard in Mystic, CT to be part of their team for the restoration of the Charles W. Morgan Whaling vessel, the last American wooden whaling vessel and America’s oldest commercial ship still afloat. We had the privilege of laser scanning the lower hold and wider ship as part of the documentation process during the multiple-year repairs to the original hull. Being involved in such a significant piece of living history was both an exceptional and demanding experience.
4.) Do you have a favorite project at HBI? Or one that you are most excited about right now?
I’m excited for the future of the Charlestown Pumping Station. Perched as it is on the side of the Mystic, right at the edge of Boston, it has the potential to go from being a silent background part of the city’s infrastructure, to a gateway and keystone in the next phase of shared development in the area.
5.) What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most?
Being part of the journey with people in exploring what is possible. Integrating new designs, uncovering past histories, simplifying the complex, it’s all part of being a partner in helping others achieve their visions for the next phase of Boston and the winder area. That never gets old!