Glasgow School of Art

[bonzer]

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.

[PastTense]

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.

Prof Billy Hare of Glasgow Caledonian University said he believed it was questionable whether anything would be salvageable. “If not, damaged buildings have been taken down almost stone by stone in the past and rebuilt with a new, internal frame,” he said. “This sort of project will cost a great deal more than the estimated 35 million after the last fire in May 2014”.

He put a conservative estimated cost for full rebuilding of the damaged building at around £100m.

Glasgow School of Art: sprinklers had not been fitted after first fire

[Batano]

I’m glad I got to visit it years ago. One of my favorite buidings. You can still visit some of his tea houses in Glasgow

[APB]

Given that within the past few decades, an entire Mackintosh house on a not-dissimilar scale, which had previously existed only as designs, was built in Glasgow, I don’t see any obvious objection to rebuilding the School of Art, from scratch if necessary. Also, the art school is going to need a new building anyway. Commissioning that new building to a new design would surely be the architectural commission from hell.

The biggest challenge might be persuading donors to donate a second time. Time for them to wheel out Brad Pitt and Peter Capaldi yet again.

[eunoia]

I only knew it from the Arte Achitectures series: The Glasgow School of Art - YouTube

[Maserschmidt]

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.