Glasgow School of Art's Mackintosh building could be opened up to tourists while efforts continues to safeguard the remains of the fire-ravaged Charles Rennie Mackintosh masterpiece and restore it.
Eleanor Magennis, director of estates and infrastructure at GSA, said discussions were underway about the prospect of opening up safe, stabilised areas in the future.
She said the school was bringing in an architect to help "brainstorm" the idea, saying tourists had continued to visit the building, which is still drying out after the 2018 fire, the second in four years.
She said one idea might be to project images onto the surviving, interior walls of the building.
The idea could help generate income for the renovation project, which has been hamstrung by an insurance wrangle.
We know the attraction of a Mackintosh building," said Ms Magennis. "Even in its current condition we get visitors all the time."
Ms Magennis, who joined GSA in 2020, was among today's speakers at the Heritage Under Threat symposium organised by the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society and held at Queen's Cross Church.
She was responding to a woman in the audience who asked if the school could create a temporary tourist attraction on site.
She provided an update on the current restoration project, which has been hamstrung by legal issues concerning the insurers.
She said she was amazed that "any of the building was still there" after the second fire and praised the efforts of Scottish Fire and Rescue for saving the masterpiece.
"It really did hang in the balance in those 48 hours," she said.
"I really feel it's a good thing that we have so much of it, even though we have so much to do to bring it back."
She said the guardians that were erected in the alcoves of the west elevation had also survived and suggested they could go on display in a Glasgow museum.
Ms Magennis said much of the wood panels created for the reconstruction of prized library after the first fire were safe in storage and work was continuing to preserve brickwork and stone.
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Why we need a public inquiry over the GSA fires
Addressing the audience ahead of her presentation she said: "Some of the images I find painful to see but we are bringing it back and we do have some positive bits to tell you."
She said the suggestion that little progress had been made in the restoration was "upsetting" to everyone involved, saying that work had continued every day since the second fire five years ago.
"A lot of people have put a lot of time and effort into the stage we are at now," she said.
"We've got a really good structure to work with."
She said the white, protective cover that has been put on the building while it dries out was not a "shroud" as some had suggested.
"That's been happening for the last year and when you go into the building you can really feel the difference," said Ms Magennis, whose parents both attended GSA.
"More importantly we have pictures of the building which show that it actually is working."
She said the scaffolding would remain until new floors were put into the building.
However, she said more of the structure would require to be taken down, saved and rebuilt again in future months.
"We are doing that in a very robust and organised way," she said.
"We have so much information about this building," she added. "It's thanks to organisations like the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society and the archives that we have at Glasgow School of Art and the Hunterian."
She said lessons had been learned from the restoration of other buildings in the UK including Windsor Castle.
A business case is currently being prepared for the restoration, which is expected to be completed by early next year and Mr Magennis said efforts are continuing to appoint a new architect.
She said all the money collected so far had come from insurance but added: "At the moment it's a complex matter and we have gone to arbitration and because we are in arbitration we can't say any more."
She said the school was "very conscious" of the impact of the restoration project on the surrounding Garnethill community.
"We very much want to involve the community," she said.
The Scottish Government has said it is giving "careful consideration" to a public inquiry into the two fires.
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