Board selling off two properties in bid to raise Mack resurrection funds
THE Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is looking to sell off two of its properties as part of its bid to raise funds for the resurrection of the landmark Mackintosh Building.
The disposal of its Richmond and JD Kelly buildings is included as part of its bid to raise more than £100 million for the reinstatement of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh masterpiece in the wake of two fires in 2014 and 2018, it can be confirmed.
Funds are also hoped to be gained from the fire insurance claim and through donations and pledges. GSA also hopes to dip into its own reserves.
The Herald has previously revealed that GSA has already raised over
£100m through insurance payouts and fund-raising since the devastating 2014 blaze.
In January, last year, Penny Macbeth, GSA director, said it did not anticipate calling on government funding if the project went to plan.
And Muriel Gray, formerly chair of the board of governors at GSA, had said the school hoped to use minimal amounts of public money for the project and rely on funds from its insurance cover and a private fundraising drive.
The Herald previously revealed that a six-year failure to reach an agreement over the “complex” insurance claim over the Mack blaze has contributed to a “national scandal” because of an “inertia” over its reinstatement.
GSA’S campus in Glasgow comprises 14 buildings, including the iconic Mack Building, the 2013 award-winning Reid Building designed by US architect Steven Holl and the refurbished Stow Building providing studio, technical support, workshop and ancillary spaces for the School of Fine Art.
In an estates appraisal of 2005, both the Richmond and JD Kelly buildings were considered for a rebuild.
The Richmond Building, on the corner of Renfrew Street and Garnet Street, was constructed using traditional techniques in around 1880 and has been home to the fine art photography department.
In 2012, GSA launched a campaign to build a £20m graduate and research centre on the site of the Richmond Building.
But the plan needed a £10m funding gap to be plugged through public donations and sponsorship.
If successful it would see what was then described as a “substandard building” swept away to make way for a 4,300sq/m new-build facility for postgraduates and new research.
No plans were to be commissioned until 2013 at the earliest with the scheme projected to move on site by 2016.
An estates appraisal of 2005 said that the immediate impression of the Richmond Building was “one of considerable dilapidation”.
“The external facades are mostly filthy and interior spaces are rather gloomy,” it said. “This property was never meant for its current use and the building is highly inflexible being composed of mostly small spaces with load-bearing crosswalls between them.”
The JD Kelly Building, which has been home to the printmaking department, was connected to Richmond on two levels.
And the appraisal said it had “many of the unfortunate drawbacks of its neighbour”.
It was constructed on the corner of Garnet Street and Hill Street in around 1898 as a hospital building.
The appraisals said the building is “somewhat dilapidated”.
It is understood that both buildings were being considered for a sale as far back as 2016, after the first Mack fire.
It came at a time when GSA said it was to undergo a major expansion, buying the Stow College site and revamping the use of the Mack.
It was then that it launched a £32m fundraising campaign, the Mackintosh Campus Appeal, to raise money to help the school recover from the impact of the 2014 fire, restoring the west wing of the Mackintosh Building, the purchase of the new building and development of studio and workshop space there.
The Hollywood actor Brad Pitt – a devotee of Rennie Mackintosh – and the former Dr Who actor Peter Capaldi agreed to be trustees of the scheme to raise cash for the building’s restoration.
The Mack was to return to its “original academic configuration”, with first-year students from all disciplines taught in the building.
GSA said that it has been clear on its intent to dispose of property that is either “no longer fit for purpose or surplus to our requirements and long term plans” as identified in an Estates Strategy approved by the GSA in June 2022.
A spokesman confirmed that the properties were marketed for disposal last year.
The external facades are mostly filthy and interior spaces are rather gloomy