RIAS and RIBA call for national response to save the Mac

RIAS and RIBA have called for a “national response” to save the Mackintosh building after the Glasgow School of Art said it was unable to fund a rebuild on its own.

Yesterday the GSA published an analysis of potential options on the future of the category A-listed ruin, which was gutted by fire in June 2018 as works to repair an initial fire four years earlier were nearing completion.

The business case calculated the cost of a full reinstatement of the building at £265m, which the school said was around five times its annual turnover and an amount that would “compromise the financial sustainability of the institution”.

In a joint response, the RIAS and RIBA backed the findings of the GSA report and said a building “of such national importance requires a national response if future generations are not to curse us for its loss or mutilation”. 

“We need leadership from the Scottish and UK Governments to find the resources needed to ensure the faithful reinstatement of the Mackintosh Building, and to secure its future as a revitalised creative hub serving Glasgow, Scotland and the world,” RIAS and RIBA added.

The GSA admitted it was unable to meet the cost despite reaching a positive settlement in a long-running insurance claim over the fire, which it pledged to use to fund a “significant enabling project” that will provide a “platform for future rebuilding”.

Expected to start next summer, the work will include removing external scaffolding which has been in place since the 2018 fire and replacing it within an internal retention system, allowing the external elevations to be revealed for the first time in eight years.

“Museum-standard” interpretations of the building will also be created to sit alongside surviving parts of the site to help explain the early 20th century building’s history.

While the school argued it had proved over the 12 years since the first fire in 2014 that it was able to operate without the Mackintosh building, it said rebuilding the site could be a catalyst for renewed innovation and regeneration in Glasgow.

Its report envisages the building becoming the anchor project in a new cultural innovation district with the GSA promising that discussions will start “immediately” with the city government and potential partners to explore how the ambition could be delivered.

The GSA’s chair of the board of governors Ann Priest said the school believed any rebuild “can and should be part of a heritage-led economic regeneration project, building on the existing creative and cultural production assets within this part of the city, to strengthen Glasgow’s creative eco-system and its position as one of the UK’s leading creative economies.”

The RIAS and RIBA is also supporting the GSA’s proposals to stabilise the facades, stating that the approach would “re-present the building to the city and people of Glasgow after too many years behind scaffolding, and will serve as a visible reminder if any were needed of why it is so important.”