Glasgow School of Art Announces Shortlist of 5 Firms for Mackintosh Building Restoration

Just seven months after a fire that destroyed part of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s eponymous building the Glasgow School of Art has announced the shortlist of five firms selected to lead the restoration of the masterpiece built between 1897 and 1909 by the Scottish architect.

The prestigious list includes Avanti Architects, John McAslan + Partners, LDN Architects LLP, Page Park Architects, and Purcell. Originating within a projector mounted on a shelf on the south wall of the studio, the fire on May 23rd, 2014, partially destroyed the Grade A-listed fabric of the building, destroying about 10% of the structure and 30% of its contents. The five bidders face the challenge of restoring the iconic piece of Arts and Craft design — one of the UK’s most revered structures — without forgetting its brand new neighbor, the Seona Reid Building by Steven Holl.

To preserve the building, this summer saw the installation of a tailored aluminum frame structure to cover the whole of the building with plastic material to make the roof watertight. According with a recent BBC inspection of the Mackintosh Building, the upper part of the building is now secured and forensic archaeologists still sifting through the ashes of the library to find any artifacts or part of these. Even among the ruins the west wing didn’t lose the dramatic of its interiors created by the light that comes through the dominating windows and the sophisticated decorations.

The process of finding a design team to lead the restoration launched in early October, and Liz Davidson, Mackintosh Restoration Project Director, seems satisfied of the significant interest from design teams from UK and abroad “All of the shortlisted practices have a strong record in undertaking major restoration and work in historic buildings together with an impressive commitment to the use of new technology and the finest craftsmanship. They each bring the level of experience and expertise that is vital to the restoration of Mackintosh’s masterpiece. We are now looking forward to hearing more about their proposed approaches.”

Mackintosh buildings are not new for John McAslan + Partners and Glasgow-based Page Park, which undertook the restoration of Mackintosh’s redesign of 78 Derngate in Northampton and the conversion of Mackintosh’s Herald Building into The Lighthouse architecture and design centre, respectively. Meanwhile, LDN Architects LLP have a deep knowledge of Scottish heritage projects, including Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford House conservation. UK- and Hong Kong-based Purcell is well known to work in historic building like The School of Arts in Chatham and the National Mining Museum in Scotland. And lastly, London-based Avanti Architects’ past portfolio of heritage building boasts the restoration of the iconic Art Deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe.

We will have to wait until mid-April to find out which firm will have the honor of undertaking the project, and we agree with Holl, reflecting on the tragedy in Architectural Record: “We must all work rapidly for its complete restoration. We should challenge ourselves that only one year will be lost, and Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art will again launch students into the world in 2016. Georges Braque once said, ‘The only thing that matters in art is what cannot be explained.’ The Glasgow School of Art has an inner worth and a dignity beyond all measurable value.”

In the meantime, we recommend browsing the Mac Photo Archive, a trove of user-submitted photos of the building before it met its untimely fate. Created by GSA alumnus Lizzie Malcolm in response to the fire, the archive is well worth a visit.