Norgas House, Northumbrian Way

Designed by Ryder and Yates. Headquarters for the Northern Gas Board (a committee of local businessmen and experts who oversaw the running of the gas industry in the north). Built 1965. represented the high point of the practice's output. Won a series of architectural awards - RIBA Architecture Award 1966, Concrete Society Commendation 1968, Civic Trust Award 1968. The offices were located on two floors around a central courtyard. The lower floor was raised on columns above the ground. The offices were divided internally by demountable partitions which allowed for a flexible space. Ryder and Yates later regretted not patenting this design. Only the boardroom and toilets had fixed walls. Lighting was provided by fluorescent tubes set in modular bays. Telephone and electrical points were set in the floor. There was a small private auditorium for lectures and seminars. The main stair, desk and foundation stone in the reception were sculptural. A single storey block provided a restaurant and caretaker's flat, linked to the main building by a glazed walkway. The rooflight was made of fibreglass in the shape of the Minoan horns of Knossos, Crete. There was a pyramid at the entrance to the site which housed a giant gas meter. Each face was a different colour. There was a cascade in a green glass cylinder flowing into a pool, to cool the air-conditioning system. The use of the curtain wall system (glazing and vitreous steel panels in aluminium frames) for the upper floors was one of the first in the North. In-between the curtain wall panels are dark grey steel fire-stop panels. Norgas House has full air-conditioning in the main block, warm-air heating in the restaurant block and under-slab heating to the external concrete entrance court to prevent ice forming in winter. The boiler house was set within glass walls. The service towers on the roof were sculptural. Peter Yates likened Norgas House to 'a jellyfish capable of extending down and out in all direction and as hurriedly contracting'. In 1967 the open ground floor was enclosed to accommodate more staff. The building was totally refurbished in the early 1990s and the Minoan horns, boardroom and stairs were removed. For this reason, the building has not been listed. It was then occupied by Transco but is now vacant. LOCAL LIST