Residential Tower at Newcastle Quayside, Newcastle

George Wimpey City

Close to Newcastle town centre, the site is bounded by Quayside and Horatio Street to the north, Mariners Wharf to the west and the River Tyne to the south. A pumping station owned by Northumberland Water occupied part of the site; the remainder is derelict wasteland.

The proposals involved the construction of a 32 storey residential tower and associated car parking set adjacent a new landscaped courtyard. A development by the Special Projects division of George Wimpey City (formerly Wimpey Homes) who were recommended by CABE to undertake a limited architectural competition to find architect capable of designing a building appropriate to the site and the immediate neighbourhood. Stephenson Bell were selected as the architect and instructed to develop their proposals and seek approval for planning consent.

Although the building was conceived as a single entity, the proposal was for a podium and tower with a varied and articulate skyline. Despite its obvious verticality, care has been taken to provide a horizontal emphasis to respond to the ribbon quality of the Terry Farrell masterplan. The design was horizontally divided into three elements, ground floor car park and entrances, middle portion of apartments, and an upper portion of penthouse. This tri-partite division is a common feature of buildings within the area.

The two blocks, the podium and the tower, had independent entrances. Both accessible from the pavement along Quayside and each expressed with a glazed façade and protective canopies over. Access to both entrances was at existing ground floor level to facilitate accessibility. The southerly views from Quayside are stunning and so, many of the apartments have a southerly aspect to take advantage of the views. The design does not turn its back on the Ouseburn. All elevations provide a layered and articulate façade and apartments face the four directions of the compass. The quality of finishes is equally high for all elevations. There is no back elevation!

To further reduce the visual mass of the building, the south elevation was fragmented into a number of ‘planes’, each terminate at different heights to give an exciting skyline and to suggest the building form turns the corner. This enables the building to direct attention towards instead of away from the Ouseburn, thereby acting as a beacon for both the Quayside and the Ouseburn alike.