Art school rebuild faces 10-year delay after legal dispute
Plans to restore the Glasgow school of art have suffered a major delay due to a legal dispute over the ‘complex insurance claim’ submitted after the 2018 fire.
arbitration proceedings have been launched against the insurer of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building over a failure to ‘confirm policy cover’.
Previous estimates of the timescale and costs are being revised as the art school is now updating its business case for the ‘faithful reinstatement’ of the building.
The setbacks mean the iconic structure – once regarded as the finest art nouveau building in the UK and the jewel in the crown of the scottish architect’s work – may not now be restored for more than a decade.
The cost of the project is also anticipated to soar above the previous £100million estimate.
Contingency plans will be drawn up in case the arbitration process rules against the Glasgow school of art (Gsa), with a request for government funding being considered as an option.
The a-listed building was reduced to a shell after the 2018 blaze, which came near the end of renovation work following a another fire four years earlier.
The cause of the blaze could not be established by investigators.
The Gsa has now revealed it has raised an official dispute with the insurance company.
a spokesman said: ‘Following publication of the Fire Investigation Report in 2022, insurers requested further information, which the Gsa provided, to enable them to confirm policy cover. In the absence of this confirmation, Glasgow school of art has chosen to initiate arbitration.
‘The process is subject to confidentiality, which means we are not able to disclose any details.’
The first fire, which started in a studio being used for a student’s exhibition, destroyed the school’s library and was covered by a £45million insurance settlement.
But the second blaze was far more devastating, with the whole structure ‘consumed by fire’.
an interim insurance payment has covered £18million worth of preliminary work on the building.
More than 5,000 tons of rubble have been removed and a protective wrap was put in place last June to allow the building, which dates back to 1909, to dry out.
The school’s director, Professor Penny Macbeth, admits the dispute could add years to the restoration project, which had been due to be finished by 2030.
asked if it could now take more than a decade, she told the Times: ‘I imagine so, yes.’ she added: ‘We are fully aware that if it takes longer it will cost more. The most important thing, however, is that this is done brilliantly.
‘We have a great legal team. Working with insurers around a fire can be frustrating. We need to move the process on.’
‘If it takes longer it will cost more’