Hurricanes devastated properties across the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) a few years ago, including on St. Thomas where the former Bluebeard Beach Club resort lost the roofs on all seven of its guestroom buildings, which also all suffered significant moisture damage. Several smaller structures were so badly damaged they needed to be demolished. Club Wyndham, operators of the timeshare property, along with its homeowners association, decided to see the destruction as an opportunity to rebuild better and rebrand the development with a more upscale appearance. Three years later, the renamed Limetree Beach Club reopened, with new amenities and upgraded metal roofs featuring a signature blue finish that make the resort easy to spot, by land or by sea.

Hurricane Irma hit St. Thomas as a Category 5 storm, with peak winds of 178 mph. Just two weeks later, Hurricane Maria, also Category 5, blew through the Virgin Islands, creating even more damage. Not long after, general contractor J. Benton Construction, based in St. Croix, put together a design-build team to assess the damage to the Bluebeard Beach Club. Included were architects Silverberg Associates, which has its own St. Croix office (along with another in Princeton, N.J.) and roofing contractor Central Roofing, a Jackson, Miss., firm that has worked with J. Benton Construction on other USVI projects.