THE Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art should be taken out of the hands of its board, a member of its staff has told MSPs.

Gordon Gibb, an architect and academic, has told members of the Scottish Parliament's culture committee, that it "needs to be taken out from under the mantle of the current priorities of the directorate and the board, which to the staff appear to be physical expansion of the campus, the reduction in resource cost and attraction of international fees.

"I would not disagree with those who say that it should not be redeveloped or run by those individuals in charge during the two fires."

He has also questioned why Kier, the construction company who were renovating the Mackintosh Building, had an office on the site.

He said: "If a stronger priority had been in the protection of our heritage and what we are, simple measures would have been taken by those responsible to protect this vulnerable building in the most dangerous part of its life."

The Mackintosh Building suffered a second, disastrous fire in June this year.

It had previously been severely damaged by a fire, caused by a projector ignited a foam sculpture in a Degree show, in 2014.

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Mr Gibb, director of professional studies at the GSA's architecture department, writes: "More than once since June we have heard it said by those in charge (and I paraphrase) that 'we have lost a building, but we still have many others'.

"I would suggest that if a stronger priority of the Art School directorate or the board had been in the protection of our heritage and what we are, as much as in the expansion of the school in other areas, simple measures would have been taken to protect this incredibly vulnerable building in the most dangerous part of its life.

"Although we have not seen the report on the cause of the second fire, and therefore cannot yet determine who or what may bear responsibility, we know that both fires were preventable."

Mr Gibb adds: "One has to ask why the contractor’s [Kier] own offices were in the building when it was in an unsafe state...I do not believe that enough lessons were learned from the first fire.

"In the GSA review of the fire report, management shortcomings were not addressed at all.

"Therefore, it is my view that those responsible for the recent stewardship of this part of our national heritage, given what could have been learned after the first fire, must surely bear a measure of responsibility for the fact that the second fire was not able to be prevented, contained or controlled at all."

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MSPS are due to quiz Murial Gray, chair of the GSA board, next week.

Director, Tom Inns, resigned from his post last week, with immediate effect.

Katrina Brown, a former governor of the GSA and director of the Common Guild arts organisation, writes in her own submission to the committee: "I understand there has also been some discussion about the idea of re-building on another site, which seems bizarre at best, not least as the rest of the School’s campus is on Garnethill.

"Removing the Mack from the city centre would decimate the cultural life and vibrancy of the area, especially of the already challenged Sauchiehall Street.

"More than most buildings, the Mack has a powerful relationship to its site – it was designed for this hill-top position – with its castle-like gable ends.

"Building it on another site could only ever be a bastardisation of Mackintosh’s design and incur considerable reputational damage to the city internationally."