MEA House gets English Heritage Listing

Gleaming with pride in the Winter sun, MEA House, Newcastle celebrates its listing status with English Heritage.

"MEA House was the first office purpose-built to house multiple voluntary organisations under one roof, demonstrating the growing social relevance of the ‘third sector’. Designed in the early 70s by Ryder and Yates, its unique, innovative design dispenses with the need for columns, instead suspending the building slabs from deep beams within." http://heritagecalling.com/2015/01/28/14-of-the-finest-post-war-offices-designed-by-leading-architects/

I loved this building as soon as it was built back in 1974.  The mirrored glass exterior was unlike any other building in Newcastle at the time and was reminiscent of skyscrapers in American cities.  It is looking a bit dilapidated nowadays, especially the surrounding walkways, but the listing status may now encourage some money to be spent on its upkeep and refurbishment.

Lets hope it can avoid tubs of Artex in future!

http://novumcastellum.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/mea-house-staircase-artex.html

Mea house staircase Artex

eeh, me mam did that!

I don't like graffiti and I don't really understand the motivation of those who deface the urban landscape with spray paint.  I concede that some graffiti has some artistic merit, but mindlessly tagging every available blank wall with spray paint, like a dog has to piss on every lamppost, is anti-social at best. Why do it?  Is it for fame, infamy, notoriety, self expression, look at me!, making one's mark, recognition, legacy. I don't know, but I suspect it is perhaps all of the above. I do know that it was with certain amount of pride when I spotted these splashes of paint on a staircase leading to the raised pedestrian walkways around Mea House when out running the other day. My mam dropped a tub of Artex down these stairs in the late 70s / early 80s, which spilled on to the footpath at the bottom and all over the bottoms treads.  As you can see, some of it is still there!  Wehey!

UPDATE: Note to Council: it wasn't really my mother who spilled the artex, honest. She does, however, admit to assisting in the extensive cleanup operation afterwards.