Since it’s an ongoing news story, this could possibly go in MPIMS, but the fire that has destroyed Mackintosh’s art school is possibly the worst destruction of an important piece of architecture that I can remember in my lifetime. (No-one died, which is worth holding on to given the recent anniversary of Grenfell,) Even with the previous fire, this was probably the single most important piece of architecture in Scotland. That now seems probably utterly destroyed.
There’s a bit of me whose reaction is: it’s gone. That’s it. It has become on a par with say the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Library of Alexandria. Except that some of us saw it and (in my case, barely) knew it. There are the memories of it that will live on, but then die.
In case anyone hasn’t been following the story the building has been closed, undergoing restoration since a fire 4 years ago. A lot of people are angry that didn’t take precautions against another fire.
I had never heard of it before, but in a weird coincidence at dinner tonight I sat next to a woman from Glasgow, and she was pretty upset about it. It was clearly a strong object of local pride and a cultural touchpoint for people from that area.
Updating this 2018 thread, it still hasn’t been rebuilt and:
Doubly destroyed by two fires, Scotland’s finest piece of architecture, the Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), cuts a lamentable sight, its charred carcass tightly shrouded in white plastic sheeting, like a vacuum-packed Christo sculpture. A 12-year saga of destruction, rebuilding and yet more destruction, all underscored by an unedifying seam of political and institutional wrangling, reached an apologetic conclusion of sorts, with the recent announcement that Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s exquisite art nouveau creation is unlikely to be rebuilt in its original form because of stratospheric cost. The GSA said a full rebuild or “faithful reinstatement” of the burnt-out 1909 landmark, which, while still remaining a long-term ambition, would cost £265m, four times previous estimates and five times the GSA’s annual turnover.
Quite apart from all the other reasons why this is really depressing, there is the fact that the Notre Dame fire and its full restoration have taken place since this thread was originally started.
Interesting building I see some similarities in the Obama Center. Shame its reconstruction is halted.
I saw this video, while one expects a certain level of messiness in art studios, I was surprised at how grungy and ill kept some of the studios appeared. Waste of resources and potentially dangerous to leave materials lying around forgotten like that.
