Villa Gemme [jèm] rests high in the heart of Saint Thomas Island, a jewel nestled between sea and sky with sweeping views of Charlotte Amalie harbor and the lush hills beyond. Once the governor’s private residence in the 1960s, the structure stood as a quiet relic of early modernist ambition—its bones elegant but weathered, its spirit dimmed by the force of Hurricane Maria in 2017.When we first arrived, the house was in ruins. Yet even through the damage, there was poetry in its lines and possibility in its frame. Our vision was not only to restore what had been lost, but to reawaken the architecture—honoring its modernist roots while reimagining the home for contemporary island life. Through a careful balance of restraint and invention, Villa Gemme has been reborn: light-filled, breezy, and quietly luxurious, with interiors and exteriors that flow like the tide surrounding it. Construction began in 2020, with completion anticipated in 2021—a transformation from ruin to refuge.