Rebirth of Mackintosh’s library begins
● Students are not expected to return to the fire-hit building until 2019
A three-year restoration of Glasgow School of Art’s worldfamous library is under way – two and a half years after it was virtually destroyed by a devastating blaze.
The team behind the planned rebirth of the iconic Mackintosh Building have offered the first glimpse into a £35 million transformation of the landmark.
A “forest of steel” scaffolding has been erected over the last three months to stabilise the fire-gutted structure of the library ahead of the restoration project, which will see the library’s look returned as much as possible to how it was when it was completed in 1910.
Original designs by celebrated Glasgow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, as well as surviving stone pillars and salvaged light fittings from the building, are being deployed in the reconstruction.the GSA is also shipping in several columns of tulipwood from a mill in Massachusetts, which was used in the original building, as part of its drive to honour Mackintosh’s vision.
Students were putting the finishing touches to end-ofyear projects when the fire caught hold at lunchtime on 23 May, 2014.
Kier Construction, the firm carrying out the restoration, started work in July on the project, which Glasgow architects Page/park have designed using surviving documents from the 1910 scheme.
Up to 150 workers, including stonemasons, plasterers, carperters and glass experts, will be involved in the restoration of the “Mack”, parts of which are still open to the elements.
Gordon Reid, business development manager at Kier, said: “We’re currently replacing the stone in the library which has been significantly damaged in the fire. This will involve cutting new stone to the rough dimension of the old stone with modern tools before our craftsmen use hand tools to expertly finish the new stone to replicate the original stone.
“A lot of the stones in buildings that you see in Glasgow were cut by machines and do not have the same craftsmanship put into them. The Art School is very keen that everything we do, as far as possible, replicates what the original building looked like.”
More than 600 pieces of lamps salvaged from the library will be used to create 29 brand new lights and help make another seven.
Project manager Sarah Mackinnon said: “It’s taken a year of work by the restoration team with our colleagues from archives and collections, to develop our conservation methodology and sort the light fragments into light ‘kits.’
“We need 53 lights to reinstate Mackintosh’s original scheme, so the missing lights will be reproduced from scratch.”