How art school WILL be rebuilt ...brick by brick
THE fire-ravaged Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is to be rebuilt after being dismantled brick by brick, it emerged last night.
The school’s director Tom Inns announced that specialists will pick the building apart by hand in a costly restoration effort that could take months.
He said: ‘We’re going to rebuild the Mackintosh Building. There’s been a huge amount of speculation about what should happen with the site and quite rightly so.
‘But from our point of view and that of the city of Glasgow, it is critically impordoesn’t tant that the building comes back as the Mackintosh Building.’
Flames tore through the 109year-old Charles Rennie Mackintosh masterpiece last month – the second fire to strike it in four years – leaving only a burntout shell.
It was thought that the unstable building would be demolished, but now art school chiefs have decided to go for the much more expensive option of a ‘managed dismantling’. Experts will now remove individual bricks by hand.
There was no mention of how much the rebuild will cost but estimates have been put at more than £100million, compared to the £35million estimated for the last rebuild.
A spokesman for GSA said: ‘It matter what it costs. Anything that comes down off the building that we can save will be saved.
Yesterday, experts were seen standing in a large cradle attached to a crane, using hand tools to dismantle the building. Four more cranes are expected to be moved to the site.
Structural engineer David Narro Associates and contractor Reigart drew up a detailed plan for the work, which includes moving salvaged items into storage. Despite their wish to keep as much of ‘the Mack’ as possible, GSA admitted that the south facade and east and west gables may be burned beyond repair.
It is unclear how much of the building can be saved as large parts of the structure, including bricks, can easily crumble from fire damage.
The walls of the building moved six inches as a result of the fire and councillors warned they could collapse ‘with no warning’.
Shopkeepers with premises inside the safety cordon on neighbouring Sauchiehall Street said yesterday they were advised by demolition experts that the process could last up to six months.
However, the GSA spokesman said: ‘When we get closer, we will know more but, for now, we have only agreed on the original eight weeks.’
Residents and shopkeepers reacted with outrage at the vague timeframe. Angela Simpson, 54, has not been able to access her home on Dalhousie Street for almost a month.
She said: ‘I’m sick of the council and the art school repeating themselves all the time. Why can’t they just say what’s going on? I can’t face another six months out of my flat. I miss my cat and my sofa.
‘I was hoping to be back by the end of August but now god knows how long it will take.
‘I have shouted, ranted, raved and bawled – and it has got me nowhere. I’m trying to treat this as an adventure otherwise I just get utterly depressed.’
Furniture retailer BoConcept has seen its store on Sauchiehall Street hit so badly by reduced footfall that it closed its doors for the last time yesterday. Bosses plan to move products to their other Glasgow stores.
However, GSA insisted the demolition will ‘take as long as it takes’.
The art school said Glasgow City Council Building Standards would assess whether it is possible to reduce the size of the exclusion cordon as the dismantling progresses.
It was revealed last month that a fire safety system at the school was ‘weeks away’ from being installed before the most recent fire hit.
‘It doesn’t matter what it costs’