A major extension to the Cork Institute of Technology has won the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) for de Blacam and Meagher, in association with Boyd Barrett, Murphy O'Connor. The award was presented by the President, Mrs McAleese, at a ceremony in Cork, where she later unveiled a plaque to mark the restoration by the local Civic Trust of No. 50 Pope's Quay, a rare 1730 Queen Anne-style building. The RIAI Gold Medal is the highest honour in Irish architecture and is awarded triennially for the design of a building of exceptional merit completed within a three-year period - in this case, during the years 1995-97.
