Gordon Ryder (1919–2000)

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

was a modernist architect and co-founder with

Peter Yates Peter James Yates (24 July 1929 – 9 January 2011) was an English film director and producer. He was known for making films in a wide variety of genres, including the Steve McQueen police thriller film '' Bullitt'' in 1968. He received nomin ...

of Ryder and Yates, described by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

as "the most important post-war architectural practice in the north-east of England" for their modernist buildings in the 1960s. Ryder studied architecture at Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape (then King's College, Durham) then in 1948 began working for

Berthold Lubetkin Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (14 December 1901 – 23 October 1990) was a Russian-born British architecture, architect who pioneered International style (architecture), modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint I ...

on the designs for

Peterlee Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It is located south of Sunderland, north of Hartlepool, west of the Durham Coast and east of Durham. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946 ( 9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68). The act als ...

new town. In 1953, he formed Ryder and Yates with Peter Yates, who had also worked with Lubetkin at Peterlee, one of the first multi-disciplinary practices that integrated architecture and engineering. Key projects were two buildings for Northern Gas in

Killingworth Killingworth is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, within the historic county of Northumberland. Killingworth was built as a new town in the 1960s, next to Killingworth Village, which existed for centuries before the new town ...

; the Northern Gas Board offices built in 1963 and subsequently the Gas Council Engineering Research Station (1966-7), "a cool Corbusian building of white concrete", which won the Financial Times' industrial architecture award in 1968, and a

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

award the following year. The offices had fallen into disrepair by 2012, having been vacant for 5 years, and were set to be demolished. The Research Station was

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

on 27 January 1997 by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

(

since 2015). Other projects included social housing at North Kenton and major buildings for the Salvation Army, Tyne Tees Television and Vickers Armaments. 'Trees', a private house built in Woolsington, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1967–68, was listed Grade II in 2010. In 2015, MEA House and Ryder & Yates' own offices in Killingworth were listed Grade II, with the architects offices subsequently being removed from the register after a change of heart by the government minister in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryder, Gordon Modernist architects from England 1919 births 2000 deaths Alumni of Newcastle University 20th-century English architects Officers of the Order of the British Empire