is significantly better known abroad than on the Island -- has been elected as the first black president of the Institute of Bermuda Architects.

Mr. Stanley Kennedy takes over a body that comprises some 50 architects who follow the guidelines of the Royal Institute of British Architects, although there is no direct affiliation. It has been in existence for 25 years.

At 69, Mr. Kennedy keeps a Bermuda office, Stanley G. Kennedy, Urban Design Associates, Victoria Street, Hamilton while maintaining his first office in Jamaica, opened in 1966 in the County of Cornwall.

Mr. Kennedy lives comfortably with two homes in Jamaica, one in New York City and a fourth in Florida. He owns no home in his homeland, although he spends half the year here.

Mr. Kennedy is an architectural giant in the Caribbean, but he only opened an office here in the late 1970s, and later took over the business of Mr. Michael Emery, who is now an associate.

Mr. Emery said simply of Mr. Kennedy: "He is one smart man.'' Asked why it has taken so long in his professional career to develop roots here, Mr. Kennedy said: "I would have shifted my office to Bermuda many years before, but the opportunities were not open to me to pursue the grade of work that I can enjoy overseas.

"The business of architecture is a business of contacts. Unless you move in the circles where decisions are made, you don't get an opportunity to do the large scale work that I am used to.

Mr. Kennedy made the point that Bermuda is a small place, with small projects.

But even opportunities to design office blocks and other business projects requires that you are accepted in the business circles where that work is being planned. He doesn't belabour the point.

Since obtaining his two degrees from Columbia University in New York, a Bachelor's degree in Architecture and a Masters in Urban Design, he has enjoyed the confidence of the financiers of some major projects.

He has designed entire communities out of 3,000-acre plots of virgin land, consulted throughout the Caribbean and the United States. He has designed banks, and has done work for the Jamaica Citizens Bank for the last 21 years.

Speaking to the Royal Gazette by telephone in Miami where he is doing consultancy work, he explained: "I'm used to doing big projects and complexes. I've also done office buildings and schools.

"I just finished a small hotel in Kingston and also recently completed an industrial plant in Jamaica for a Canadian firm that is manufacturing detergents there.'' He has designed the entire layout, buildings and all else, for the Health Regional Planning complex, which reminded him of the pre-1966 days when he worked for 10 years designing hospitals.

The Institute of Bermuda Architects, under Mr. Kennedy's presidency, will now expand its membership to include non-registered architectural practitioners and will work to develop architectural education outreach programmes, student scholarships and professional exam study support groups.

Mr. Stanley Kennedy.