From Charles Boney Jr.’s downtown office at LS3P, he has a clear view of the former cooperative bank headquarters that his father, Charlie, designed.
 
They would later get to work together on the building (now First Bank) on an addition.
 
For a local family that includes three generations of architects and dozens of landmark buildings in their collective portfolios, it’s easy to find overlapping projects in the area.
 
Leslie Boney opened an architectural office in 1913 that eventually became Boney Architects, drawing his three sons and some of their children into the industry along the way. In 2005, the firm merged with LS3P, growing to 35 employees in the Wilmington office and 330 across the firm’s multiple locations.
 
Chris Boney, Charles’ brother, was recently named chief relationships officer to focus on firm-wide business development, and their cousin Paul Boney serves as senior vice president.
 
Below is an excerpt from a recent conversation with Charles Boney Jr., vice president and principal, on the continued impact architecture has on the community.
 
From an architectural standpoint, what did the Wilson Center represent for our market?
“Much higher-level design. It proved that we could put a very, very high-style modern building in historic downtown Wilmington and have it blend in and be accepted and be a real focal point for that north side of town.
 
"… We did the Wilson Center. We did (CFCC) Union Station. We did the convention center – those three, this sort of this triumvirate thing of fairly large buildings, large footprints, huge public investment in downtown. But they also draw people. So the convention center is bringing tourists into downtown. It’s bringing people from outside, from Raleigh and Greensboro, and they’re all coming here, and they bringing their dollars. They’re laying their dollars on the tables of restaurants, shops, and I think they really are a tool of commerce as much as anything.”
 
You’ve been with the firm for this long and through the merger and growth period, so walk me through: what’s a typical day like for you now?
“That’s the thing I enjoy about my job, is there are no typical days. … Right now I’m working on a proposal for a master plan for Fayetteville Technical Community College – we do a lot of community college planning …
 
"I’m working on helping Pender County with a restoration plan for their courthouse, and that’s a really important thing to that community because that courthouse anchors so much of Burgaw. It’s been out of use since Hurricane Florence. I’m anxious to help them get that thing back in shape. I like to fix things, and that’s one of those things that I can fix.”
 
Since you all work on a lot of commercial and mixed-use projects, what role does that have in how Wilmington is going to continue to develop?
“I hope, by elevating the importance of design, we set the stage for improvement in surrounding properties so everyone benefits. There was a great architect Eliel Saarinen who said, ‘Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.’
 
"So if you take that to the logical conclusion, when we design a building we think about the block that it sits in. We think about the block that’s adjacent to that and what are the influences that project can have on the other side …
 
"We have an obligation as architects to make good buildings – preferably great buildings – but those buildings should also contribute to and engage and improve the fabric of the city surrounding them.
 
"No building stands alone.”