Glasgow School of Art cannot afford to restore fire-hit Mackintosh building

Glasgow School of Art says it cannot fully restore the city's iconic Macintosh Building to its former state without additional financial support.

The art school previously insisted it was committed to a faithful reinstatement of the building, which was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh but wrecked by two fires in 2014 and 2018.

However it now says "financial clarity", provided by an insurance settlement regarding the 2018 blaze, has shown it "cannot take forward the faithful reinstatement on its own."

Instead it suggests the building has potential to be an anchor for a "creative and cultural production innovation district".

But this claim that has attracted scorn from figures in the art world.

The GSA's new report into restoration plans says several factors - including construction inflation, market volatility and economic pressure - have made the reinstatement of the Mackintosh far more expensive than predicted in a previous report, published in 2021.

The report states fully restoring the Macintosh is therefore "dependent on external funding sources that are uncertain", and cites a "significant funding gap" needing to be resolved.

It believes the total cost of restoring the Mackintosh would be £265m.

Ann Priest, the chair of the school's board of governors, told BBC Scotland News: "What we are doing is what is affordable to us.

"The school cannot possibly, on its own, rebuild this whole building. It would take us away from financial sustainability.

"We are still hoping to go towards a full, faithful reinstatement. It's not going to be an exact replica, due to changes in construction and building [standards]."

She said the school would now look for "visionary individuals" who could bring "serious investment" to the project, as well as governments and local authorities.

The GSA will now remove external scaffolding about the building, saying this will improve the building's presentation and visibility, as well as helping stabilise the site.

Priest added that this will be the first step in "the reinstatement for whatever this building is going to become" and called the new proposals a landmark move for the long-term future of the site.

She said: "We have looked at the economic case, what does Glasgow need, what do our students need and what will benefit the school, the building and the creative and cultural industries."

The painter and writer Lachlan Goudie told BBC Scotland News the possibility of the art school not being restored to its former self was a disgrace.

He said he feared the more time passes from the fires, the higher chance people will start to forget the building.

Goudie said: "This reeks of a lack of transparency, which has been very common over the past eight years. The fact it has taken that long to get to a point where we know nothing much, beyond the GSA don't have enough money to rebuild it, is shameful.

"It is a national disgrace what has happened here. Nothing less than an authentic recreation of what Macintosh left Glasgow and the world will do.

"We had the World Cup recently, and we should be as proud of the building as we are of the national football team. The Scottish government need to be saying this is vital to our national character - we had architectural crown jewels left to us."

When asked by BBC Scotland if she would consider the Mackintosh being taken outwith the board of governors and perhaps be passed to a trust if they fail to secure further investment, Priest said she was confident more funding would be achieved.

The first fire ripped through the Art School building on 23 May 2014.

Four years later an even more devastating fire broke out - this time occurring near the end of a £35m restoration project.

Since then GSA said about £26m of funding has gone towards work on restoring the historic building, which was first completed in 1910.

However work stalled after a dispute with insurers, resulting in a long-running arbitration claim. GSA now say this was settled to its satisfaction last month.

But it declined to reveal any details of what was awarded in the case, only saying the total came short of the number needed to carry out a full restoration of the building.

The report lists several cultural organisations based near Sauchiehall Street, including Scottish Opera, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Theatre of Scotland.

It proposes formal recognition of this so-called cluster, saying it would be "a creative and culture-led innovation district would bring significant opportunities" for Glasgow as a whole, with the Macintosh serving as a "cultural anchor" to the plan.

The Art School says it will seek to begin discussions immediately with the city, government, stakeholders and potential partners over this proposal.

However the mention of this cluster, which was not previously discussed in prior papers, has raised scepticism from some.

Prof Alan Dunlop, who studied architecture at the GSA, has previously criticised GSA management's handling of the two fires and ran for chair of the board in 2022.

He told BBC Scotland News the new plans feature "so many if's and but's".

He added: "This seems to me to be a dilution of responsibility, and worse, a distinct failure to focus on their prime task of delivering a replacement for the Mackintosh building, rather than enabling some centre for creative activity.

"There's no legitimate pathway described at all for the delivery for the 'faithful reinstatement' of the building."

Prof Dunlop says he fears the building is gone forever, as it would be impossible to rebuild to modern health and safety standards.

He also queried how the £265m figure had been reached by the GSA.

Priest told BBC Scotland the figure had been calculated through work with various leading architects.