The New York-based design publication Architizer announced on Tuesday that GPT’s Wollongong Central development had won the popular choice and judges’ choice in the shopping centre category of its 2015 awards.

The six-level building, completed last October, beat four other futuristic retail developments from Norway, Indonesia, China and the United Arab Emirates.

GPT development manager Steven Turner said it was rare to win such a well-respected international award, and hoped the double recognition would help put Wollongong on the map within the international creative and design world.

‘‘It’s great to see people get behind this, because for them to take the time to go and vote for it is a pretty clear sign that they really like it and are proud of it,’’ Mr Turner said.

‘‘It’s enormous exposure with Architizer, because millions of people around the world in the design spectrum look at the online publication, and that’s really important for Wollongong.’’

He hoped Destination Wollongong, the university and companies like BlueScope would be able to leverage the win to gain exposure for the city.

Principal architect from Rice Daubney HDR, Susanne Pini, who grew up in Wollongong, based the design on her memories as a child of migrant parents as well as her interpretation of the city’s natural beauty, and industrial heritage.

‘‘It is not a building the city deserved, but rather a building deserving of the city,’’ she said.

Some of its features include the shapes of Illawarra flame trees pressed into the concrete walls, craggy steel blades resembling the city’s old blast furnaces and 4000 colanders that line the roof of the fresh-food level and hark back to the city’s migrant kitchens.

The awards will be presented to the team at a formal gala in New York on May 14.