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WBM january 2011
foothold in the southeast part of the
state. Jay later sold Synthesis affiliate,
Telesis, a contracting company, to his
business partner, Tim Gaylord. Then
the DeCheseres took a three-month
hike on the Appalachian Trail.
Looking back, in photo albums
that illustrate his career from an early
start in his home state, Kentucky, to
the genesis of his own firm, started
in a garage on Harbor Island in
Wrightsville Beach, DeChesere’s
contributions to the built environ-ment
list read like landmarks from
the decades. In the ’60s it was stately
Bear Hall — the University of North
Carolina Wilmington’s Marine
Science and Oceanology building;
in the ’70s it was The Landing on
Wrightsville’s Causeway Drive — a
North Carolina American Institute
of Architect’s mixed-use retail-office
winner; in the ’80s, it was the Bald
Head Island Administration center. A
crop of medical buildings and private
homes located on Bald Head, Figure
Eight and Harbor islands followed in
the ’90s.
That was the decade Jay and
Heather bought an island of their own
between Eleuthera and Harbour Island
in the Bahamas. On Middle Cay, less
than two acres, the DeCheseres spent
years resurrecting a storm ravaged
stucco shell.
“It was a big house, 2,700 square
feet,” DeChesere says. “I was sketching
stuff on a napkin trying to figure out
what to do with it. It had been deserted
for years, completely termite eaten.
There were rats and all kinds of wildlife
in it. Heather and I went down and
started working on it. We camped in
the house and started tearing stuff out
Opposite: The interior floorplan was
opened up when an attached garage
was repurposed as a home office,
allowing natural daylight to flood the
foyer. This view looks through the
living area to the trellised patio.