The Angel of the North Tyne and Wear hotels:

The Angel of the North is a new landmark at the entrance to Tyneside. Its wide, open arms greet visitors as they reach Gateshead, whether they come by road or rail. Its silhouette at the head of the Team Valley now rivals that of the famous Tyne Bridge. A panoramic hilltop site has been chosen where it is clearly seen by more than 90,000 drivers a day on the A1 - more than one a second - and by passengers on the East Coast main line from London to Edinburgh. The site, a former colliery pit head baths, has been re-claimed as a green landscape on the boundary of the Great North Forest. The Artist
Antony Gormley OBE, who was born in 1950, is at the forefront of a generation of celebrated younger British artists who emerged during the 1980s. He has exhibited work around the world and has major public works in the USA, Japan, Australia, Norway and Eire. Public work in Britain can be seen in locations as diverse as the crypt at Winchester Cathedral and Birmingham city centre. State of the art engineering has been used to create Gateshead's Angel of the North, Britain's largest sculpture. Made from weathering steel, it is built in three parts - two wings and the body. Each contains a mix of up to five elements: Ribs - the external skeleton cut from 50mm thick steel allows the structure that holds the Angel together to be integral to its appearance. Skin - 6mm sheet steel bent and welded to ribs make up the body form. Sacrificial ribs - these lie beneath the skin plates and help to shape them.
Diaphragms - looking like ribs on the surface, they are actually 50mm thick horizontal plates which go right through the body - up to six metres by three metres and weighing almost five tonnes. There are five of these - the most crucial in the chest which line up with the horizontal diaphragms on the wings to provide a solid anchor point. Core - the unseen skeleton which runs from its feet to its chest to give extra support. This hollow steel tube - a series of cylinders and cones - mirrors the shape of the body. It is 30mm thick plate steel up to its knees and 15mm thick above. The lower body ribs are welded directly on to the core. This revolutionary approach to the manufacture was devised by Hartlepool Steel Fabrications, which won the contract to build the Angel of the North. They worked closely with consulting engineers Ove Arup & Partners and Gateshead Council to make the design of the Angel a reality.