Glasgow School of Art: devastated by fire again
“How could this happen twice in four years?” asked The Herald (Glasgow). In 2014, a fire broke out in the basement of Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building, and went on to damage sections of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s art nouveau masterpiece and destroy its famous library. But thanks to a massive funding effort that raised £35m, the building was at the point of being completely restored last week: craftspeople had painstakingly recreated the library’s ornate wooden panelling and its glasswork. Then, on Friday night, a far bigger fire ripped through the building. And this time, fears are mounting that “the Mack” may be beyond repair, said The Observer. More than 120 firefighters and 20 fire engines were called to tackle the blaze, but even so the whole structure was “gutted, and its roof and upper floors almost entirely destroyed”. “All that seems to remain is the stone walls,” said Alan Dunlop, an architect who had trained at the school. “I can’t see any restoration possible... It looks totally destroyed.”
It was a “bleak morning for British art”, said Mark Hudson in The Daily Telegraph. Britain has many great buildings and educational institutions, but Glasgow School of Art is unique in being “an internationally important art school housed in a world-class building”. It changed the face of modern design. When it opened, at the turn of the 20th century, Mackintosh’s School of Art was “deeply unpopular”, said Steve Brocklehurst on BBC News online. Partly resembling a Scottish baronial castle, but in places “more like the palace of a Japanese shogun”, with heavy ironwork around the windows, it was thought to “lack symmetry or logic”. But “over the decades, Glasgow and the world grew to love this strange building”. The School of Art is one of the great “cultural threads” that runs through Glaswegian life, said Claudia Massie in The Spectator. It’s “a social hub, a music venue, an exhibition space” and an architectural classic that the entire city takes pride in.
It’s too early to say what caused the fire, said Libby Brooks in The Guardian. But it has emerged that a new sprinkler system had not yet been fitted, and as the local MP Paul Sweeney noted to his surprise, there were no fire prevention patrols in the building. The Mack may once again rise from the ashes, said BBC News online. The facades could be saved; officials have suggested that it should be possible to rebuild around them. Failing that, “a complete copy would be doable”: a comprehensive digital model of the entire building was compiled after the first fire. But either way, the cost would be massive: at least £100m, by most estimates.