MEA House

MEA House is an office building constructed between 1972 and 1974 to house multiple voluntary organisations together in a single building. It was designed by the architectural practice Ryder & Yates. The building stands five storeys tall plus a basement and penthouse, and is constructed from concrete and steel with brown-brindle brickwork and mirrored Corning glass cladding.

Plan and Setting

The building is aligned north-south and forms the western side of Ellison Place, straddling the street where it enters the square. The site slopes down slightly from north to south, so the main ground-floor entrance on the eastern side of the building is set below the main street level of Ellison Place. The building comprises a large rectangular slab block that forms the main accommodation and is surmounted by a penthouse. A curved auditorium projects from the western side of the building. A first-floor concrete pedestrian deck is incorporated on the east side of the building and connects to the city's elevated pedestrian walkway system. This deck was required by the city's planners. A later ramp leads east down into Ellison Place, and a later high-level walkway at the south end of the building crosses the adjacent four-lane Durant Road. Both these connections were introduced after the building was completed.

Structural System

The main slab-like element of the building is lifted above street level and is suspended from deep beams that form the sides of the penthouse. These beams span at roof level between three reinforced-concrete service towers or cores placed at the centre and at each north and south end of the building. This Vierendeel truss arrangement allows the upper floors of the building, which are formed of concrete slabs, to be hung on cantilevered subframes from the penthouse beams with steel straps of varying strength but uniform cross section. The subframes and hangers also carry the building's external cladding. This construction frees the ground level from columns that would have restricted the existing roadways and enables the building to straddle the road, whilst also providing additional support for the auditorium projection's roof.

Exterior

The building's ground floor is recessed and is of brown-brindle brick. The east side of the building incorporates the building's main entrance, which is located to the left of centre on the ground floor in a single-storey projection surmounted by part of the first-floor pedestrian deck. The entrance doors have been replaced. Two flanking open-fronted spaces originally contained underneath the entrance's overhang (the underside of the pedestrian deck) have been glazed and incorporated into the entrance hall and an altered interior space that is now used as an innovation hub. Ground-level support at the northern end of the building, which is adjacent to the straddled street of Ellison Place, is provided by a small brown-brindle brick annexe located at the base of the northern service tower. This annexe originally contained the building's charity shop. It has a concrete east wall incorporating a partly-glazed lozenge-shaped entrance, and a blocked-up window on the south wall facing onto the road.

At first-floor level (originally known as the mezzanine level) on the southern half of the building's east side is a concrete pedestrian deck that connects to a long pedestrian ramp that leads eastwards down into Ellison Place, and also to a high-level walkway that crosses south over the neighbouring four-lane Durant Road and then connects to further high-level walkways. Both the ramp and walkway were added by Newcastle Corporation after the building was finished. The southern half of the building's second floor on the east side is a blank expanse of brown-brindle brickwork, while the northern half is composed of office space lit by a horizontal band of square windows set within aluminium frames lying above a curved concrete front. These windows and concrete front are replicated at second-floor level on the west side of the building, which appears as the first floor due to the topography of the site.

The two upper floors of the building are clad in rectangular grey-coloured Corning mirror-glass panes six rows deep and set in aluminium frames. These panes slightly distort the reflections of neighbouring buildings and the sky, and also conceal the internal floor levels from view. The glass came from Pittsburgh, United States and was inspired by Ryder & Yates' trip to the Montreal Expo in 1967 where it was featured on one of the pavilions. The penthouse at the top of the building runs the full length of the building and has a parabolic roof. Diagonal hangers are visible on each east and west side of the main roof flanking the penthouse and appear like modern flying buttresses.

The building's north and south end walls are of concrete and act as a cross-sectional outline expressing the building's suspension structure. The walls are faced in a glass aggregate resin finish that is struck to resemble fixed panels. The south wall has been partly clad with three rows of solar panels installed in 2013.

A curved auditorium formed of post-tensioned brickwork projects from the main rectangular block on the west side and follows the curved western corner of the site. Due to the topography of the site the ground-floor level is underground on the western side and only the upper level of the projection is visible. The auditorium's curved wall was originally completely blank, but a series of narrow vertical windows separated by thin metal fins were inserted in 2012 to 2013. The auditorium has a parapet that curves upwards in front of part of the main block's second floor and conceals the projection's flat roof and a large, later raised roof-light from view.

Interior

Due to the high cost of the structure itself and the external finishes, the interior was originally simply finished with painted-plaster walls and PVC tiled floors. The floor coverings have since been replaced mainly by carpets and laminate floors following the 2000 to 2001 refurbishment, which are not of special interest. The three vertical service towers or cores, which form an integral part of the structural system, contain stairs, lifts and services and extend through all the floor levels. The building's two lifts, which are enclosed within the central service tower, have been refurbished and are not of special interest. The building is air-conditioned due to the building's location adjacent to the urban motorway and services are concealed underneath suspended ceilings.

The various floor levels originally had modular partitioning and incorporated committee rooms and offices on each floor. They have since been re-configured and partitioned to create a central corridor on each floor with offices off to each side, along with toilets and kitchenettes adjacent to the lifts, which are not of special interest.

The ground-floor reception area or entrance foyer has been altered and is not of special interest. However, the original steel dog-leg stair with curved half-landings, which is located at the rear of the entrance space and leads up to the first and second floors, is of special interest and is included within the listing. The stair's open risers have been filled in. Two further enclosed stairs accessing all the floor levels are also included within the listing and are located at each north and south end of the building, both with steel balustrades and some sections having been boxed in. An innovation hub located off to the north side of the entrance foyer was originally a waiting room and office forming part of the Citizens Advice Bureau and was also latterly used as a cafeteria. This space, which now also incorporates a former external pram store, is not of special interest.

The interior of the auditorium projection has been heavily altered and is not of special interest.

The northern annexe originally contained the building's charity shop, but is now empty and unused and its interior is not of special interest.

The penthouse originally contained a caretaker's flat, common room and a cafeteria, but is now composed of a series of meeting rooms with a corridor along the eastern side, which are not of special interest.

Pursuant to section 1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.