Seven-year art project... but Gray vows rebuilt Mack will be as beautiful as ever
REBUILDING the fire-ravaged Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art could take up to seven years.
Muriel Gray, chairman of the school’s board, said the project would follow Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s original designs and added she hoped no public money would be needed.
In June, the renowned building was gutted by a huge blaze which spread to nearby properties including the O2 ABC music venue. It happened as the building was being restored following a previous fire in 2014.
The damage caused by the latest blaze was so bad it was initially feared the building would have to be demolished, but art school chiefs instead opted for a ‘managed dismantling’, which involves the walls being taken down by hand.
In the weeks after the fire it emerged that some of the walls had moved by as much as six inches due to the intense heat and there were fears they could collapse.
It has been estimated that rebuilding the art school, which was completed in 1909, could cost more than £100million.
Miss Gray told the Herald on Sunday: ‘We are resolved that the Mackintosh comes back as a working art school, as a major player, a cultural leader for the city and the Scottish economy.’
She added: ‘It will be beautiful. It will be as Mackintosh designed it, to the millimetre.
‘People argue [a rebuild will take] anywhere between four and seven years.
‘That will depend on the insurance money, getting the right people in place to do it, building regulations, all the standard technical and financial stuff, but... for the forensic detail we have on the building, we could practically 3D print it.’
The author and broadcaster, a former student at the art school, hopes the rebuild can be funded largely from insurance money, private donations and charitable fundraising.
She said: ‘We are entirely trusting that this is not going to cost any public money.’
In July a £5million fund was announced to help businesses affected by the fire.
Finance Secretary Derek Mackay confirmed the cash after business owners and residents complained after they were shut out of a safety cordon that was placed around the site following the blaze.