Risen phoenix returned to ashes
MORE than four years after fire engulfed its west wing, some of Glasgow School of Art’s most distinctive features had just begun to rise phoenix-like from the ashes in a £25 million renovation project.
With contractors Kier working through the building from the roof to the basement, the ceiling of the world-famous Mackintosh Library had been carefully replicated and finally installed at the end of 2017.
On the roof, the glass-walled, timber-framed ‘hen run’ connecting the grade A-listed building’s east and west wings, built ten years apart, had been restored at last to its former 1910 original design. And such was the astonishing attention to detail in the project that the pitch on the run’s glass ceiling, increased at some point in its history to encourage the drainage of rain water, had even been returned to the slight slope stipulated by Mackintosh.
Just weeks ago, work began in earnest to reconstruct the exquisite interior of the library, which had once housed original furniture and fittings designed by Mackintosh and was reduced to nothing more than blackened rubble in the fire of May 23, 2014. Following a worldwide fundraising campaign, those running the famous art school had pledged it would be recreated in the same condition in which Mackintosh handed it over more than 100 years ago.
Experts carried out two years of painstaking research – including studying original Mackintosh plans and the enormous school archive, as well as photos from students and graduates – before commissioning craftspeople to begin renovations.
Specialist forensic architects combed the site for ‘salvage’ to help create the ‘moulds’ for the rebuild. A thorough drying out of the building was also necessary to guard against problems with rot.
A full-size prototype of a large section of the Library was even constructed off-site to help identify any pitfalls Edinburgh-based master joiners Laurence McIntosh might face whilst recreating it.
The project had been scheduled to conclude by the end of this year, with undergraduate students returning to the building next spring. Today such hopes, along with many of the recreated pieces, lie in blackened ruins.