It’s a statement building.

And now The Dean Hotel has earned some major recognition for Cork after it was announced as the only Irish winner at the International Architecture Awards.

Hosted by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, the Awards recognise 130 of the best-designed buildings and landscapes from around the world.

Cork-headquartered Wilson Architecture, which has offices on Leeside, in Dublin and in China, was recognised in the Hotels category for its work on The Dean, which is owned and managed by The Press Up Group and situated on Horgan’s Quay in the city’s North Docklands area.

The instantly recognisable black-clad structure houses a 120-bedroom hotel with a rooftop restaurant and marked the first stage of the Northern Quarter masterplan, which anchors the wider Horgan’s Quay mixed-use development, currently under construction.

Describing the thinking behind the design process, Paud O’Mahony, Managing Director of Wilson Architecture and lead architect on The Dean Hotel, Cork said the bespoke black panels, which create alternate reflections in the light, and the windows, which blend with the reflections, make the building appear as “a single vibrant, constantly changing object”.

“The black colour contrasts the white limestone of the adjacent Carriage Sheds in a symbiotic relationship where each compliments the other,” added O’Mahony.

The winning projects will be honored at a special awards ceremony and Gala Dinner in Athens, Greece on September 15th, which will be attended by Wilson Architecture.