"Hey… I'm moving to India. GOOD LUCK"

With those words, the person developing and hosting our website suddenly vanished, abandoning and pulling the plug on the hosting. Our website shuddered, shrugged, exhaled a puff of digital smoke, went dark and disappeared.

We could have searched for him and for our website. But in India? Really? And to whom would we have inquired anyway?
A thin, Forty-something White guy with short, brush-cut hair, 1 1/2 inch diameter wooden disks inserted into expanded holes in both earlobes, carrying thousands of our dollars and our website in an invisible cyber-briefcase would stand out conspicuously in most Virgin Islands crowds. I could have found him here. But India is a huge country, teeming with more than a billion people and a multitude of cultures. And what would we have done when we captured him anyway? Force him to regurgitate our website?

It was time to take a deep breath, reflect on lessons-learned, exhale completely and start over. This time though, we would be much more engaged in the process. Complete with in-house charrette and all, our web site design would become a full-fledged architectural design project and experience.

We began by researching other architect's websites. They spanned a huge and diverse range. There were the arrogant, cocky ones; the overly complicated, impenetrable, impossible-to-navigate ones; the simplistic, rudimentary, almost primitive ones; and the cookie-cutter, websites-in-a-box. None were appropriate for our culture at The DEJONGH GROUP.

After all, with more than forty years of practice, several nice awards, solid creative talents, a husband and wife leadership that lives and breathes architecture and design, a dedicated and talented team, and a well established reputation for excellence, competence, integrity and capability; our firm did not fit neatly into any of the above mentioned website-type-slots. We're not saying we're too good..., or above all that stuff... It’s just that, as one of our principals has been heard to occasionally, humorously and somewhat sarcastically expound "... our principal shortcoming is our excessive amount of humility..." We're Just SAYING ...

We wanted our website to showcase our capabilities, artistry, skill and experience. After all, that is why architects and planners are sought out to become involved in the design of communities, buildings and spaces. But we wanted our website to also represent who we are as people and our culture as professionals and how much Community means to us. We wanted our website to illustrate and communicate the deJongh Group’s enthusiasm and passion for quality, and how much we love what we do.

We hope that we have achieved our goal -- that you plainly see the enthusiasm, appreciate the passion and feel the Love as well!

Thanks for visiting. Come back often and share the love with us.

THE DEJONGH GROUP ARCHITECTS