Staiths South Bank

[citation needed] After a long period of industrial use throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, including development of a large gasworks for the production of town gas from coal, the site became disused.

As a result of this process, the North East region of Wimpey Homes made an acceptable financial offer based on redevelopment of the land for housing.

While conceptual design work with the Hemingways continued apace, the considerable challenges of achieving a workable remediation scheme were tackled by AIG and Arup in negotiation with the Environment Agency.

Most importantly, the thickness of the proposed clean capping material was to be measured after being placed to satisfy George Wimpey and Gateshead Council that the work was in compliance with the remediation design.

As it happened, neither of these issues were to prove the most contentious barrier to planning consent or implementation, as revealed when the design of the project moved into detailed consultation with the Council.

[citation needed] Wayne and his wife, Gerardine, complimented the existing professional team rather than replacing any part of it, although there was a change of Architect in order to provide a clean break from previous design studies.

There remained a need for a team of housing development design professionals as the Hemingways were concept driven and did not claim to be able to provide detailed technical information which would still be required for regulatory approval and construction.

[citation needed] In addition to the design team, a North East Public Relations firm, Cool Blue PR, were engaged by the developers to assist in managing media interest and the production of marketing material.

[citation needed] The Hemingways' conceptual aesthetic and functional ideas were interpreted into a gridlike circulation layout creating horseshoes of around 20 terraced properties backing onto a shared garden space, enclosed & gated to provide privacy and security.

In the event, this combination of deliberately blocked long views and a 'busy' public realm design, limited the perception of the overall layout for anyone stood within the Homezone or garden areas.

[citation needed] While the Hemingways' influence was to cover all aspects of the project, Gerardine was particularly effective in selecting external materials which were interesting for both their colour and texture.

[citation needed] Despite the elevational treatments being unconventional, Gateshead Council exerted relatively little influence on these and instead concentrated their comments and concerns on the public realm design, most particularly the Homezone areas.

[citation needed] The support of central Government included an award of Homezone grant towards the additional costs involved in the creation of a more complex public realm.

The masterplan for the development was divided into phases with the initial construction intended to take place to either side of the new main access off Team Street towards the east end of the site.

While this early selling process was becoming the norm for large capital intensive projects which would be attractive to investors, such as city centre apartments, it was not common practice for the sale of family/'estate' housing.

[citation needed] The development has won a number of national and regional awards, which include: Staiths South Bank achieved the highest rating of any large scale scheme in a recent CABE audit.