AN ICONIC office block, designed by leading North East architects, could be demolished and replaced with houses.
Stephenson House, on the Stephenson Industrial Estate in Killingworth, was built around 1965 by Gordon Ryder and Peter Yates.
It is one of a series of buildings in the area produced by the architects. The two-storey structure, which has been empty since 2009, is on North Tyneside Council’s local register of buildings of architectural and historic interest.
Now plans have been put together by Savills LLP to demolish the site and construct 24 homes.
Mark Brooker, senior planner for Storeys Edward Symmons, Tyneside- based agents for Savills LLP, said: “The building has been vacant since 2009 and has suffered from vandalism.
“It has been marketed over the years but no-one has shown interest in occupying the space, especially since there are other business parks, like the Cobalt, in the borough. The building is at the end of its useful life.
“North Tyneside needs more housing and this scheme provides an opportunity to redevelop a brownfield site.”
Two other Ryder and Yates buildings in the area are also being knocked down.
Norgas House, which had lain empty for more than five years, is to be replaced by houses. Despite a marketing campaign, no occupiers were found for the site. In addition, the former Norgas Training College, known as Chan House, is also to be demolished.
The Stephenson House scheme is due to be discussed by a planning committee next week and officers are recommending approval. They say the scheme would regenerate a vacant site and help to address the need for housing in the borough.
If the proposal is approved, it could create around 35 jobs during demolition and construction.
Architect Rutter Carroll, of Gosforth, Newcastle, who wrote a book on Ryder and Yates three years ago, said the men had made a major contribution to architecture.
He added: “North Tyneside Council needs to understand that Ryder and Yates’s work in Killingworth is important because it was here that we saw the creation of a new architecture in the North of England.
“In the early 1960s, Killingworth, part of the former Northumberland coalfield, was a desolate area. Despite this, the site was bravely chosen by the Northern Gas Board for its headquarters after they experienced delays in obtaining a site in Newcastle city centre.
“It was this profoundly unpromising setting that Ryder & Yates proceeded to transform into an abstract landscape of quite breathtaking beauty through a series of extraordinary buildings.”
He added: “Their use of new materials and technologies on these buildings was without precedent, and the loss of any of their works would be a disaster for our modern architectural heritage.”
