The 2016-2017 Nadine Isaacs Memorial scholars are: Miss Ashley Williamson and Mr. Andre Purge. Both students are pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Architectural Studies at UTECH.

The memorial scholarship’s namesake, Everyl Nadine Isaacs, B. Arch, Dip. Bldg. Science, FJIA, was born in Jamaica in 1942 to Ivy and Wills Isaacs and was forever and always known as ‘Nadine Isaacs’. She graduated from the University of Sydney, Australia with a diploma in Building Science in 1981, having already earned her Bachelor of Architecture from Carlton University, Ottawa in 1974; in the same year she received her Certificate of Accredited Architectural Education from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Nadine returned home to take a position with the Jamaican Ministry of Housing, working her way up to become Senior Executive Architect. In the mid-1970s, she worked with the World Bank on various projects in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing to improve availability of low-cost roofing materials. Nadine joined the Sites and Services Division and worked on low-cost housing design and construction, later joining the Urban Development Corporation, before opening her own firm in 1982, E. Nadine Isaacs Architects Limited. Nadine Isaacs also found time to serve as Chairman of the then NRCA (now NEPA).

Nadine Isaacs, Jamaican architect par excellence, pulled off many ‘firsts’: first female President of the Jamaica Institute of Architects (1986); following up, she was re-elected for a second term in 1987, and in that same year, was appointed first female Vice-Chair of the Architects Registration Board. In1999, she became the first female to head the Caribbean School of Architecture and the first ever female ‘Fellow’ of the Jamaica Institute of Architects.

Nadine Isaacs died on 16 June 2004 and the Nadine Isaacs Memorial Scholarship at UTECH was established in the same year, by her brother-in-law and Chairman of Gore Developments Limited, Phillip Gore.

The Gore Family Foundation in conjunction with Gore Developments Limited congratulates and salutes our two scholars, Ashley and Andre! We wish them all the very best in their endeavours as worthy recipients and budding architects; living up to this distinguished Scholarship’s standards set by one of Jamaica’s finest architects and high achievers, the late Nadine Isaacs.

Janice Casserly
Gore Family Foundation
[email protected]
(876) 978-1520-1