The Glasgow school of art has announced it will put out a tender for architects, and cost consultants to achieve the "faithful reinstatement" of the Mackintosh Building.
The world-renowned building was ravaged by fire in May 2014, with a second blaze gutting the structure after extensive rebuilding work had been carried out.
As covered in the Herald's exclusive series, today the building remains in stasis, covered in white sheeting as plans for a second rebuild drag on.
You can read every article in the series here.
Read More:
-
GSA admit inadequate fire protection in court battle over Mack blaze disaster
-
Reinstatement of Mackintosh Building ‘will create increased interest in his legacy’
-
Expert warned prized 'Mack' was 'potential furnace' 20 years before first blaze
With the 10 year anniversary of the first fire coming up on May 23, the GSA has announced plans to issue a tender for the appointment of architects, cost consultants and economic impact experts for the reinstatement of the building.
That will serve as an update to its Strategic Outline Business Case, published in October 2021, taking into account the current financial climate, the inflation in construction costs.
It will also update the economic case for the rebuilding project, as well as reflecting Glasgow City Council’s recently-published new vision and Plan for Glasgow city centre, and the role of culture and heritage in the regeneration of Sauchiehall Street and the immediate surrounding area.
The update is scheduled to be published in early 2025.
Professor Penny Macbeth, Director of the GSA said: “We are committed to the faithful reinstatement of the Mackintosh Building, and for that to be done in an exemplary way, returning it as a working art school building at the heart of Glasgow’s creative and cultural eco-system.
“While the protective wrap installed in June 2023 does its job of allowing the building to dry out over the next couple of years, it is important that we move forward with parallel work strands in what is a complex building project.
“What we are now doing, through the SOBC Addendum process, robustly testing our previous assumptions, economic impact, timelines and approaches to delivery, whilst initiating arbitration with our insurers, will ensure we can make strategic, evidenced-based decisions, ensuring the Mackintosh Building is successfully rebuilt and contributes to the regeneration of Sauchiehall Street and this part of Glasgow City Centre.”
The GSA is also taking legal action against the insurers of the building, with arbitration to decide whether a claim should be paid out.
A statement said: "Since June 2018, we have been working through the very complex insurance claim, supported by a team of external legal and insurance professionals.
"Following publication of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Fire Investigation Report in January 2022, our insurers requested further information which the GSA provided to enable them to confirm policy cover. In the absence of this confirmation, we have chosen to initiate arbitration. The arbitration process is subject to a confidentiality provision which means that we are not able to disclose any further details."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here