De Blacam & Meagher Architects: Outstanding Contribution to Architecture 2018

We are thrilled to announce that De Blacam & Meagher Architects will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Architecture 2018 award at this year’s Building and Architect of the Year Awards at The Round Room at The Mansion House, Dublin on Thursday, October 4th.

De Blacam & Meagher Architects, founded by Shane de Blacam and John Meagher in 1976, have won numerous awards for their work over the years, including - uniquely - all three medals awarded by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland.

They won a Gold Medal for the library at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), the Housing Silver Medal - twice - for two apartment schemes (No.1 Castle Street and the Wooden Building in Temple Bar), and the Silver Medal for Conservation for the Atrium and Dining Hall Trinity College.

The practice grew out of taking part in architectural competitions in the 1970s for new parish churches in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin and for an official Taoiseach's residence and State guest house in the Phoenix Park (never built), which laid out their agenda for the future.

De Blacam and Meagher's projects include the Chapel of Reconciliation in Knock, the Samuel Beckett Theatre in TCD, several major brick buildings in CIT, the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business at UCD, and the conversion of Abbeyleix's market house into a library.

They were awarded the Europa Nostra Medal of Honour in 1987 for the TCD Dining Hall and Atrium, the Architectural Association of Ireland's Downes Medal in 1994 for the Beckett Theatre and the Royal Institute of British Architects' European Award in 2007 for their work at CIT.

Worthy winners of this year's Outstanding Contribution to Architecture, De Blacam & Meagher Architects have also represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale and had projects published in many of the world's architectural journals, as well as in the definitive Phaidon Atlas of Modern Architecture.

Shane de Blacam and John Meagher will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Architecture award on behalf of De Blacam & Meagher Architects at The Building and Architect of the Year Awards 2018. The gala awards ceremony and dinner will take place on Thursday, October 4th, at The Round Room at The Mansion House, Dublin.