According to the American architect Robert Venturi, "the north façade of the Glasgow School of Art is one of the greatest achievements of all time, comparable in scale and majesty to Michelangelo." However, for all its world renown and international acclaim, the building continues to function over a century later as its architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, always intended - as a working 'living' art school.



Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Glasgow School of Art is faced with the challenge of:

 - maintaining the Mackintosh Building as, first and foremost, a respected teaching facility for upwards of 200 artists at the heart of a busy campus with over 1600 students

- recognising the historic importance of the Mackintosh Building and trying to preserve the fabric of this unique structure whilst maintaining an important museum collection of almost 3000 artefacts within the confines of a working school

- satisfying the needs of an ever-increasing number of cultural visitors to Glasgow seeking out the Mackintosh Building - over 21,000 people on guided tours in 2003 alone, with a predicted rise in numbers of 5-10% per year



As a university museum, the Glasgow School of Art is committed to balancing the needs of education, heritage and tourism within this one important building. An application for a multi-million pound Heritage Lottery grant (submitted in June 2004) should, if successful, be a significant step forward, because as mere custodians of the Mackintosh Building, the Glasgow School of Art has a responsibility to make sure that it gets this balance right. Surely the architect himself would have approved

Trowles, Peter

Glasgow School of Art: RADAR

The Glasgow School of Art: a living heritagePeter TrowlesMackintosh Collection, The Glasgow School of ArtIn many ways the Glasgow School of Art is very lucky. Not only has it educated atalented array of architects, designer and artists for well over 150 years but itschief campus building, and the architect who designed it – an alumnus of theschool – has an international reputation that is second to none.According to the American architect Robert Venturi, the north facade of theCharles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Glasgow School of Art ‘is one of thegreatest achievements of all times’ (Jones 1990, p. 88). Sir Terence Conran hasstated that the School is ‘a robust, functional building imbued with artistry andrichness: a working environment that expresses the spirit of creativity’ (1996, p.206), and Professor Christopher Frayling, Rector of the Royal College of Art hasremarked that ‘the Glasgow School of Art is the only art school in the worldwhere the building is worthy of the subject’ (Guardian 21 January 2002, p. 11).Fig. 1. North facade of the Mackintosh Building, The Glasgow School of Art. Photo: ©Glasgow Picture LibraryFine words indeed, but as the Glasgow School of Art enters the 21st century it isfaced with perhaps its most onerous task ever. It has to balance the needs of itsstaff and students who continue to use the Mackintosh Building for the purposefor which it was always intended, i.e. teaching, with those of the widerinternational community who see the building and the collections housed within itas first and foremost a museum of world heritage status.For those staff now involved with the day-to-day management of the MackintoshBuilding, the boundaries between functioning art school and publicly accessibleheritage attraction have become increasingly blurred. Certainly, this was notalways the case, and to an extent the school has partly become the victim of itsown artistic and cultural success.In 1896, when the original competition to design the current building (to replacethe school’s earlier, inadequate premises) was put forward, it was a young andrelatively unknown junior architect called Mackintosh who was charged withdesigning and overseeing the construction of a new purpose-built art school ableto meet the demands of the impending 20th century (Buchanan 2004, pp. 5–49).Remarkably, the actual construction of the school, built in two distinct phases,1897–99 and 1907–09, passed by almost unannounced, and it was not until1924 that the Mackintosh Building was first mentioned and illustrated in anarchitectural monograph (Marriott 1924, p. 120). For the next 50 years thesuccess of the school as a teaching institution saw full-time student numbersincrease considerably and the campus extend to include further buildings.However, throughout this time the Mackintosh Building remained at the veryheart of the school, continuing to provide studio and workshop accommodationfor both the first-year and fine art programs, together with an increasing numberof administrative offices.Only in the early 1980s did the subject of Charles Rennie Mackintosh begin tohave an impact on the physical running of the school. Slowly, academic interestin the architect’s life and work began to grow. An increasing number ofinternational exhibitions and related books and catalogues brought about anincreased awareness of the Mackintosh Building itself.Visitors wishing to experience the Mackintosh Building first hand were stillrelatively few and almost exclusively academics and college or universitystudents (chiefly from other art or design institutions). However, casual visitorswere also welcomed, and often the duty janitor would act as informal tour guide. By the mid-1980s the City of Glasgow had woken up to the notion of culturaltourism as a means of urban regeneration and suddenly the arts were at the topof the agenda. Throughout the 1980s demand for public access to theMackintosh Building grew and the school eventually set about establishing arecognised and well-publicised program of student-led guided tours. These publictours lasted about one hour and allowed the visitor access into the heart of thebuilding. Here they saw a few of the prime Mackintosh-designed rooms, includinga newly introduced furniture gallery, while minimising the disturbance to studentsand staff still working in the building.  However, numerous requests from the public for access to the light and spaciouspainting studios were denied, as the school felt this would be too invasive. Eventoday the school remains committed to keeping these teaching spaces ‘touristfree’.    Fig. 2. First-floor painting studio, Mackintosh Building. Photo: © Glasgow School of Art  In 1990 Glasgow secured the prestigious title of European City of Culture andexperienced a phenomenal rise in visitor numbers and the introduction of dozensof new hotels, bars and restaurants. Six years later, in 1996, the largestMackintosh exhibition to date saw numbers in excess of 200,000 attend the showin Glasgow’s McLellan Galleries, a venue literally next door to the art school. Notsurprisingly, this one-off event brought record numbers of visitors to theMackintosh Building and by the end of that year over 15,000 visitors had beenaccommodated on guided tours. There was also a significant rise in visitornumbers to the school’s temporary exhibition program.  Post 1996, visitor numbers to the Mackintosh Building have continued to risesteadily, helped by an enthusiastic local tourist board which has positioned theso-called ‘Mackintosh effect’ as one of their key marketing tools. Such has beentheir success that over the last few years the school has at times found itselfstruggling to meet the demand. Now, tours of the Mackintosh Building run six oreven seven days a week, 51 weeks a year, and visitor numbers for 2003/04, onguided tours alone, were in the region of 22,000.  Since 1985, the guided tour program and a small visitor shop have beenmanaged by a separate trading company, GSA Enterprises Ltd, which, notsurprisingly, generates a considerable amount of revenue then directed back intothe school by a deed of covenant arrangement. However, both the school and itsenterprise company continue to be hindered by the availability of space within theMackintosh Building.  In recent years there has been a substantial growth in demand for continuing-education classes. In addition to its complement of full-time staff and students,the school now delivers an extensive program of adult evening classes, Saturdaymorning classes for children, and summer and Easter vacation packages. Whilenot all of these programs take place within the Mackintosh Building, those that doonly increase the pressure on its physical resources.Of equal concern is the fact that the school has only very limited space currentlyavailable for the storage and display of its impressive museum collection andarchive. At present, the collection consists of over 3000 items in a variety ofmedia, the majority of which are by former students and staff of the school fromthe 1880s to the present day. Of these items, almost 300 are examples ofMackintosh’s own work – drawings, watercolours and furniture that are of trulyinternational importance. The school’s institutional archive dating back to itsorigins in the 1840s continues to grow and has become an important resource forboth teaching and research. However, as with the collection, limited spacecontinues to hinder use and accessibility. A new Mackintosh Research Centre forCollections and Archives was set up within the building in 2001 but has alreadyoutgrown the space available.Fig. 3. Ground floor studio, Mackintosh Building during the 2003 Degree Show. Photo: ©Glasgow School of ArtA temporary exhibition gallery within the Mackintosh Building and three othersmall exhibition spaces elsewhere on campus comprises current museum andgallery provision for the school as a whole. However, in June the school’s annualdegree show dominates the entire campus and just about every available spaceis commandeered for displaying students’ work. In that one week alone, well over6000 people usually visit the exhibition, with almost half that number attending onthe opening night!For the moment these facilities are just about adequate, but as the schoolpredicts a year-on-year increase in visitor numbers of anywhere between 5 and10%, together with a growing interest in the school’s collections and archives asan area of rich, research potential, something has to be done.There is certainly recognition that the functioning of the Mackintosh Building as ateaching resource remains paramount. It is felt that the day the students and staffof the school are forced out, to be replaced entirely by tourists, may be the daythe character of the building dies (Trowles 1998).So can the Glasgow School of Art continue to manage the Mackintosh Buildingas a multi-functional space? It certainly believes it can, but with currenteducational funding at a premium this can only really be achieved with asubstantial investment from external sources. To this effect the school hasrecently submitted a major application for UK Heritage Lottery Funds for a projecttotalling some £6.5m.In its application the school recognises its responsibilities for the custodianship ofthe Mackintosh Building and its varied collections and archives. Indeed, over thelast decade significant investment has been put into the external fabric of thebuilding with the support of Historic Scotland (the government agencyresponsible for Scotland’s built heritage) and the Getty Grant Program. Asubstantial grant from the US-based Royal Oak Foundation was also spent onthe conservation of many of Mackintosh’s original drawings and watercolours. Anumber of these were eventually loaned to the McLellan Galleries exhibition inGlasgow in 1996 and its subsequent tour to New York, Chicago, and LosAngeles (Kaplan 1996, pp. 351–69).Ten years on, the internal historic fabric of the building needs to be addressedwith the same degree of thoroughness as the external shell. Clearly, if no actionis taken over the next few years, the interior of this important building will beincreasingly at risk of accelerated deterioration through daily wear and tear. Evenmore worrying is the potential disaster posed by serious damage from fire orflood as service installations continue to age beyond their economic life. If actionis not taken the building itself will not only be put in severe jeopardy but theschool’s international credibility and reputation may ultimately suffer. A key element of the school’s Heritage Lottery proposal is therefore to focus onthe repair and conservation of the historic interiors of the building, such as theLibrary – and where possible the reinstatement of original features and functions.Fig. 4. Library, Mackintosh Building. Completed in 1909, and still in use today as areference library. Photo: © Glasgow School of ArtThe project proposes the removal of many later physical additions (includingvarious walls and doorways and a number of mezzanine landings) and therestoration of original elements within the building – such as the reinstatement offolding screens between some first-floor studios. These improvements will notonly benefit the architectural quality of the building itself but will more closelyreflect Mackintosh’s original intentions. Similarly, the proposal calls for therelocation or removal of a number of surface-mounted service installations(electric heaters, telephones, signage etc), which have had a significantlydetrimental ‘visual’ impact on Mackintosh’s original scheme.The provision of new administrative accommodation within the school’s broaderEstates Strategy allows for the relocation of a number of offices (notably centralmanagement and student services) out of the Mackintosh Building altogether. Indoing this, access to two key Mackintosh apartments will be given over to thevisitor for the first time (the Director’s Room and the Board Room).Re-routing the existing guided tour will also see the Basement Corridor beingincluded for the first time, giving visitors access to all but a smaller sub-basementarea that houses mainly technical workshops. There is also potential to access anumber of other original apartments, including the former Luncheon Rooms (nowhome to the Registry) and a lecture theatre. It is hoped that the room currentlyoccupied by the finance department will be restored and reinstated to its originalpurpose as a wonderful, north-facing painting studio. In addition, the school alsointends to restore the original, forced-air heating and ventilation system (Cairns1995, pp. 5–10). While there is now some question as to whether the GlasgowSchool of Art can be considered the very first building to have such technologyfully integrated into its design, the original heating and ventilation system is animportant and fascinating early example of air-conditioning.Additionally, the school’s Heritage Lottery application recognises it can help toreduce wear and tear on the Mackintosh Building by more effectively managingthe flow of visitors through the historic interiors. A unique aspect of the visitor’sexperience on viewing the school is not only the appreciation of the quality anddetail of the physical spaces but also witnessing the building in use as an artschool – the very purpose for which it was designed and for which it is supremelyeffective. However, as the primary purpose of Glasgow School of Art is theprovision of education, there remains an ongoing conflict between its functions.There are occasions when visitors intrude on the normal life of the educationalestablishment, while there are similarly many occasions when the educationalpurpose of the building inevitably limits the quality of the visitor experience.By providing new reception facilities (in a proposed new build directly across fromthe main facade of the Mackintosh Building) the school would be able to offer anenhanced experience for visitors. For the first time, interpretive material (text andimage, models, film and computer-based information) could be used to increasevisitors’ knowledge and understanding of Mackintosh and the very workings ofthe art school. There are also plans to increase the display of works by studentsand famous alumni, thereby raising the profile of the institution still further.Currently, visitors gather in the main Entrance Hall prior to the tour starting andfor logistical reasons each tour consists of no more of twenty people. At peaktimes there can be two or more tours starting out within minutes of each and thiscan cause significant congestion within the hallway (and elsewhere), obstructingstaff and students. The circulating visitors stand at various key locations in thebuilding and, on occasion, intrude upon the educational purposes of the school.By contrast, areas of interest such as the Director’s Room and the Board Roomare not currently available for viewing due to educational use. Other significantspaces, such as the Mackintosh Room (a former boardroom now filled withoriginal pieces of Mackintosh furniture), are also sometimes unavailable due toofficial school business.An integral part of the Heritage Lottery proposal is revising and re-routing the tourthrough the Mackintosh Building, to take advantage of extra spaces open to thepublic for the very first time. These changes would ensure a smoother flow ofvisitors through the building and end in the Basement Corridor where newenvironmentally controlled galleries would be installed.Fig. 5. A student-led guided tour of the Mackintosh Building. Photo: © Glasgow School ofArtAs part of the ongoing implementation of the school’s Conservation Plan, theproject proposes to allocate space in the basement of the Mackintosh Building fora permanent exhibition of Mackintosh furniture. Similarly, an area has beendesignated as an exhibition space for rotational displays of material from thearchives and other school collections. These new galleries will provideappropriate opportunities to develop and display the collections in conditions ofproper environmental control and security and will significantly enhance thevisitor experience. At the conclusion of the guided tour of these galleries visitorswill have the flexibility to spend as long as they wish prior to exiting the buildingvia the relocated Mackintosh visitor shop. Integral to these proposals is the development of a much more comprehensiveResearch Centre complete with archive storage in the basement and subbasement of the Mackintosh Building. The Research Centre itself will be able toprovide dedicated accommodation for research, allowing students, researchersand members of the public access to the rich history of the school and its alumni.Environmentally controlled storage, adjacent to the Research Centre, will ensurethe archives and collections are held in proper conditions with easy retrievalaccess.The application also includes a considerable sum set aside for the actualconservation of the school’s collections and archives, as at present the schooldoes not employ any conservation staff. In the past, work on the collections andarchives has been undertaken almost entirely when requested for a specificexhibition, or when money becomes available.  All things considered, the school’s application for Heritage Lottery funds is veryambitious, and one of the most challenging tasks will be to implement thesedevelopments without closing the Mackintosh Building. As all its other campusbuildings are running at capacity, the school does not have space to relocate theentire body of staff and students from the Mackintosh Building for the duration ofthe project. Therefore, the school has already begun to work on a suggestedrolling program of limited access/part closure across the Mackintosh building.While this makes the project achievable, it will inevitably be more costly and timeconsuming. This may, however, be the only way forward.With luck, work will begin late 2006, or early 2007. Assuming that everythinggoes more or less to plan, the entire project will be complete by the end of 2009,just in time to celebrate the exact centenary of the opening of the second half ofthe building on 15 December 1899. A truly fitting gesture to the Mackintoshlegacy.ReferencesBuchanan, W (ed.) 2004, Mackintosh’s masterwork: the Glasgow School of Art,2nd edn, The Glasgow School of Art Press, Glasgow and A & C Black, London.Cairns, G 1995, ‘The Glasgow School of Art: the missing link of environmentalsystems history’, Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Newsletter, vol. 66, pp.5–10.Conran, T 1996, Terence Conran on design, Conran Octopus, London.Frayling, C 2002, ‘Wonders and blunders’, Guardian, 21 January, p. 11.Jones, A 1990, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Studio Editions, London.Kaplan, W (ed.) 1996, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow Museums, Glasgowand Abbeyville Press, New York.Marriott, C 1924, Modern English architecture, Chapman & Hall, London.Trowles, P 1998, ‘Great building: shame about the students! Charles RennieMackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art’, in P Berman (ed.), Architecture 1900,Donhead Publishing, Shaftesbury, pp. 347–55.

The Glasgow School of Art: a living heritage

The Glasgow School of Art: a living heritage
Peter Trowles
Mackintosh Collection, The Glasgow School of Art
In many ways the Glasgow School of Art is very lucky. Not only has it educated a
talented array of architects, designer and artists for well over 150 years but its
chief campus building, and the architect who designed it – an alumnus of the
school – has an international reputation that is second to none.
According to the American architect Robert Venturi, the north facade of the
Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Glasgow School of Art ‘is one of the
greatest achievements of all times’ (Jones 1990, p. 88). Sir Terence Conran has
stated that the School is ‘a robust, functional building imbued with artistry and
richness: a working environment that expresses the spirit of creativity’ (1996, p.
206), and Professor Christopher Frayling, Rector of the Royal College of Art has
remarked that ‘the Glasgow School of Art is the only art school in the world
where the building is worthy of the subject’ (Guardian 21 January 2002, p. 11).
Fig. 1. North facade of the Mackintosh Building, The Glasgow School of Art. Photo: ©
Glasgow Picture Library
Fine words indeed, but as the Glasgow School of Art enters the 21st century it is
faced with perhaps its most onerous task ever. It has to balance the needs of its
staff and students who continue to use the Mackintosh Building for the purpose
for which it was always intended, i.e. teaching, with those of the wider
international community who see the building and the collections housed within it
as first and foremost a museum of world heritage status.
For those staff now involved with the day-to-day management of the Mackintosh
Building, the boundaries between functioning art school and publicly accessible
heritage attraction have become increasingly blurred. Certainly, this was not
always the case, and to an extent the school has partly become the victim of its
own artistic and cultural success.
In 1896, when the original competition to design the current building (to replace
the school’s earlier, inadequate premises) was put forward, it was a young and
relatively unknown junior architect called Mackintosh who was charged with
designing and overseeing the construction of a new purpose-built art school able
to meet the demands of the impending 20th century (Buchanan 2004, pp. 5–49).
Remarkably, the actual construction of the school, built in two distinct phases,
1897–99 and 1907–09, passed by almost unannounced, and it was not until
1924 that the Mackintosh Building was first mentioned and illustrated in an
architectural monograph (Marriott 1924, p. 120). For the next 50 years the
success of the school as a teaching institution saw full-time student numbers
increase considerably and the campus extend to include further buildings.
However, throughout this time the Mackintosh Building remained at the very
heart of the school, continuing to provide studio and workshop accommodation
for both the first-year and fine art programs, together with an increasing number
of administrative offices.
Only in the early 1980s did the subject of Charles Rennie Mackintosh begin to
have an impact on the physical running of the school. Slowly, academic interest
in the architect’s life and work began to grow. An increasing number of
international exhibitions and related books and catalogues brought about an
increased awareness of the Mackintosh Building itself.
Visitors wishing to experience the Mackintosh Building first hand were still
relatively few and almost exclusively academics and college or university
students (chiefly from other art or design institutions). However, casual visitors
were also welcomed, and often the duty janitor would act as informal tour guide.
 By the mid-1980s the City of Glasgow had woken up to the notion of cultural
tourism as a means of urban regeneration and suddenly the arts were at the top
of the agenda. Throughout the 1980s demand for public access to the
Mackintosh Building grew and the school eventually set about establishing a
recognised and well-publicised program of student-led guided tours. These public
tours lasted about one hour and allowed the visitor access into the heart of the
building. Here they saw a few of the prime Mackintosh-designed rooms, including
a newly introduced furniture gallery, while minimising the disturbance to students
and staff still working in the building.
 
 However, numerous requests from the public for access to the light and spacious
painting studios were denied, as the school felt this would be too invasive. Even
today the school remains committed to keeping these teaching spaces ‘tourist
free’.
 
 
 
 Fig. 2. First-floor painting studio, Mackintosh Building. Photo: © Glasgow School of Art
 
 In 1990 Glasgow secured the prestigious title of European City of Culture and
experienced a phenomenal rise in visitor numbers and the introduction of dozens
of new hotels, bars and restaurants. Six years later, in 1996, the largest
Mackintosh exhibition to date saw numbers in excess of 200,000 attend the show
in Glasgow’s McLellan Galleries, a venue literally next door to the art school. Not
surprisingly, this one-off event brought record numbers of visitors to the
Mackintosh Building and by the end of that year over 15,000 visitors had been
accommodated on guided tours. There was also a significant rise in visitor
numbers to the school’s temporary exhibition program.
 
 Post 1996, visitor numbers to the Mackintosh Building have continued to rise
steadily, helped by an enthusiastic local tourist board which has positioned the
so-called ‘Mackintosh effect’ as one of their key marketing tools. Such has been
their success that over the last few years the school has at times found itself
struggling to meet the demand. Now, tours of the Mackintosh Building run six or
even seven days a week, 51 weeks a year, and visitor numbers for 2003/04, on
guided tours alone, were in the region of 22,000.
 
 Since 1985, the guided tour program and a small visitor shop have been
managed by a separate trading company, GSA Enterprises Ltd, which, not
surprisingly, generates a considerable amount of revenue then directed back into
the school by a deed of covenant arrangement. However, both the school and its
enterprise company continue to be hindered by the availability of space within the
Mackintosh Building.
 
 In recent years there has been a substantial growth in demand for continuing-
education classes. In addition to its complement of full-time staff and students,
the school now delivers an extensive program of adult evening classes, Saturday
morning classes for children, and summer and Easter vacation packages. While
not all of these programs take place within the Mackintosh Building, those that do
only increase the pressure on its physical resources.
Of equal concern is the fact that the school has only very limited space currently
available for the storage and display of its impressive museum collection and
archive. At present, the collection consists of over 3000 items in a variety of
media, the majority of which are by former students and staff of the school from
the 1880s to the present day. Of these items, almost 300 are examples of
Mackintosh’s own work – drawings, watercolours and furniture that are of truly
international importance. The school’s institutional archive dating back to its
origins in the 1840s continues to grow and has become an important resource for
both teaching and research. However, as with the collection, limited space
continues to hinder use and accessibility. A new Mackintosh Research Centre for
Collections and Archives was set up within the building in 2001 but has already
outgrown the space available.
Fig. 3. Ground floor studio, Mackintosh Building during the 2003 Degree Show. Photo: ©
Glasgow School of Art
A temporary exhibition gallery within the Mackintosh Building and three other
small exhibition spaces elsewhere on campus comprises current museum and
gallery provision for the school as a whole. However, in June the school’s annual
degree show dominates the entire campus and just about every available space
is commandeered for displaying students’ work. In that one week alone, well over
6000 people usually visit the exhibition, with almost half that number attending on
the opening night!
For the moment these facilities are just about adequate, but as the school
predicts a year-on-year increase in visitor numbers of anywhere between 5 and
10%, together with a growing interest in the school’s collections and archives as
an area of rich, research potential, something has to be done.
There is certainly recognition that the functioning of the Mackintosh Building as a
teaching resource remains paramount. It is felt that the day the students and staff
of the school are forced out, to be replaced entirely by tourists, may be the day
the character of the building dies (Trowles 1998).
So can the Glasgow School of Art continue to manage the Mackintosh Building
as a multi-functional space? It certainly believes it can, but with current
educational funding at a premium this can only really be achieved with a
substantial investment from external sources. To this effect the school has
recently submitted a major application for UK Heritage Lottery Funds for a project
totalling some £6.5m.
In its application the school recognises its responsibilities for the custodianship of
the Mackintosh Building and its varied collections and archives. Indeed, over the
last decade significant investment has been put into the external fabric of the
building with the support of Historic Scotland (the government agency
responsible for Scotland’s built heritage) and the Getty Grant Program. A
substantial grant from the US-based Royal Oak Foundation was also spent on
the conservation of many of Mackintosh’s original drawings and watercolours. A
number of these were eventually loaned to the McLellan Galleries exhibition in
Glasgow in 1996 and its subsequent tour to New York, Chicago, and Los
Angeles (Kaplan 1996, pp. 351–69).
Ten years on, the internal historic fabric of the building needs to be addressed
with the same degree of thoroughness as the external shell. Clearly, if no action
is taken over the next few years, the interior of this important building will be
increasingly at risk of accelerated deterioration through daily wear and tear. Even
more worrying is the potential disaster posed by serious damage from fire or
flood as service installations continue to age beyond their economic life. If action
is not taken the building itself will not only be put in severe jeopardy but the
school’s international credibility and reputation may ultimately suffer.
 A key element of the school’s Heritage Lottery proposal is therefore to focus on
the repair and conservation of the historic interiors of the building, such as the
Library – and where possible the reinstatement of original features and functions.
Fig. 4. Library, Mackintosh Building. Completed in 1909, and still in use today as a
reference library. Photo: © Glasgow School of Art
The project proposes the removal of many later physical additions (including
various walls and doorways and a number of mezzanine landings) and the
restoration of original elements within the building – such as the reinstatement of
folding screens between some first-floor studios. These improvements will not
only benefit the architectural quality of the building itself but will more closely
reflect Mackintosh’s original intentions. Similarly, the proposal calls for the
relocation or removal of a number of surface-mounted service installations
(electric heaters, telephones, signage etc), which have had a significantly
detrimental ‘visual’ impact on Mackintosh’s original scheme.
The provision of new administrative accommodation within the school’s broader
Estates Strategy allows for the relocation of a number of offices (notably central
management and student services) out of the Mackintosh Building altogether. In
doing this, access to two key Mackintosh apartments will be given over to the
visitor for the first time (the Director’s Room and the Board Room).
Re-routing the existing guided tour will also see the Basement Corridor being
included for the first time, giving visitors access to all but a smaller sub-basement
area that houses mainly technical workshops. There is also potential to access a
number of other original apartments, including the former Luncheon Rooms (now
home to the Registry) and a lecture theatre. It is hoped that the room currently
occupied by the finance department will be restored and reinstated to its original
purpose as a wonderful, north-facing painting studio. In addition, the school also
intends to restore the original, forced-air heating and ventilation system (Cairns
1995, pp. 5–10). While there is now some question as to whether the Glasgow
School of Art can be considered the very first building to have such technology
fully integrated into its design, the original heating and ventilation system is an
important and fascinating early example of air-conditioning.
Additionally, the school’s Heritage Lottery application recognises it can help to
reduce wear and tear on the Mackintosh Building by more effectively managing
the flow of visitors through the historic interiors. A unique aspect of the visitor’s
experience on viewing the school is not only the appreciation of the quality and
detail of the physical spaces but also witnessing the building in use as an art
school – the very purpose for which it was designed and for which it is supremely
effective. However, as the primary purpose of Glasgow School of Art is the
provision of education, there remains an ongoing conflict between its functions.
There are occasions when visitors intrude on the normal life of the educational
establishment, while there are similarly many occasions when the educational
purpose of the building inevitably limits the quality of the visitor experience.
By providing new reception facilities (in a proposed new build directly across from
the main facade of the Mackintosh Building) the school would be able to offer an
enhanced experience for visitors. For the first time, interpretive material (text and
image, models, film and computer-based information) could be used to increase
visitors’ knowledge and understanding of Mackintosh and the very workings of
the art school. There are also plans to increase the display of works by students
and famous alumni, thereby raising the profile of the institution still further.
Currently, visitors gather in the main Entrance Hall prior to the tour starting and
for logistical reasons each tour consists of no more of twenty people. At peak
times there can be two or more tours starting out within minutes of each and this
can cause significant congestion within the hallway (and elsewhere), obstructing
staff and students. The circulating visitors stand at various key locations in the
building and, on occasion, intrude upon the educational purposes of the school.
By contrast, areas of interest such as the Director’s Room and the Board Room
are not currently available for viewing due to educational use. Other significant
spaces, such as the Mackintosh Room (a former boardroom now filled with
original pieces of Mackintosh furniture), are also sometimes unavailable due to
official school business.
An integral part of the Heritage Lottery proposal is revising and re-routing the tour
through the Mackintosh Building, to take advantage of extra spaces open to the
public for the very first time. These changes would ensure a smoother flow of
visitors through the building and end in the Basement Corridor where new
environmentally controlled galleries would be installed.
Fig. 5. A student-led guided tour of the Mackintosh Building. Photo: © Glasgow School of
Art
As part of the ongoing implementation of the school’s Conservation Plan, the
project proposes to allocate space in the basement of the Mackintosh Building for
a permanent exhibition of Mackintosh furniture. Similarly, an area has been
designated as an exhibition space for rotational displays of material from the
archives and other school collections. These new galleries will provide
appropriate opportunities to develop and display the collections in conditions of
proper environmental control and security and will significantly enhance the
visitor experience. At the conclusion of the guided tour of these galleries visitors
will have the flexibility to spend as long as they wish prior to exiting the building
via the relocated Mackintosh visitor shop.
 
Integral to these proposals is the development of a much more comprehensive
Research Centre complete with archive storage in the basement and sub
basement of the Mackintosh Building. The Research Centre itself will be able to
provide dedicated accommodation for research, allowing students, researchers
and members of the public access to the rich history of the school and its alumni.
Environmentally controlled storage, adjacent to the Research Centre, will ensure
the archives and collections are held in proper conditions with easy retrieval
access.
The application also includes a considerable sum set aside for the actual
conservation of the school’s collections and archives, as at present the school
does not employ any conservation staff. In the past, work on the collections and
archives has been undertaken almost entirely when requested for a specific
exhibition, or when money becomes available.
 
 All things considered, the school’s application for Heritage Lottery funds is very
ambitious, and one of the most challenging tasks will be to implement these
developments without closing the Mackintosh Building. As all its other campus
buildings are running at capacity, the school does not have space to relocate the
entire body of staff and students from the Mackintosh Building for the duration of
the project. Therefore, the school has already begun to work on a suggested
rolling program of limited access/part closure across the Mackintosh building.
While this makes the project achievable, it will inevitably be more costly and time
consuming. This may, however, be the only way forward.
With luck, work will begin late 2006, or early 2007. Assuming that everything
goes more or less to plan, the entire project will be complete by the end of 2009,
just in time to celebrate the exact centenary of the opening of the second half of
the building on 15 December 1899. A truly fitting gesture to the Mackintosh
legacy.
References
Buchanan, W (ed.) 2004, Mackintosh’s masterwork: the Glasgow School of Art,
2nd edn, The Glasgow School of Art Press, Glasgow and A & C Black, London.
Cairns, G 1995, ‘The Glasgow School of Art: the missing link of environmental
systems history’, Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society Newsletter, vol. 66, pp.
5–10.
Conran, T 1996, Terence Conran on design, Conran Octopus, London.
Frayling, C 2002, ‘Wonders and blunders’, Guardian, 21 January, p. 11.
Jones, A 1990, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Studio Editions, London.
Kaplan, W (ed.) 1996, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow Museums, Glasgow
and Abbeyville Press, New York.
Marriott, C 1924, Modern English architecture, Chapman & Hall, London.
Trowles, P 1998, ‘Great building: shame about the students! Charles Rennie
Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art’, in P Berman (ed.), Architecture 1900,
Donhead Publishing, Shaftesbury, pp. 347–55.


http://radar.gsa.ac.uk/3509/1/Trowles.pdf

The Glasgow School of Art: a living heritage

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