http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/disp ... 39.0.0.php
THE finishing touches are being put to the recreation of a world-famous architectural landscape from Glasgow's past as part of a new £146,000 tourist attraction.
Art experts have nearly finished the project to reconstruct a 3D version of the Empire Exhibition.
The spectacular show of 150 buildings attracted huge crowds of 12,593,000 to Bellahouston Park over just six months in 1938.
Its 21st century recreation, being designed by experts at Glasgow School of Art, should be up-and-running by April and will go on show in the park's House for an Art Lover.
advertisement
And the £146,000 attraction, which will be viewed using a bank of computers, will also be used as a teaching tool for city schools.
David Leslie, chairman of charity House for an Art Lover Ltd which runs the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building in Bellahouston Park, said: "It is exciting and fits in with our mission to stimulate art, design and architecture in the park.
"The Empire Exhibition is also a vital part of the history of Bellahouston and Glasgow. The 3D version will be viewed through computers within a dedicated room which I very much hope will become an online education resource."
Ian Johnston, heading up the design team at the art school, said: "We will recreate the whole of the exhibition and put in animated scenes so people can walk up and down the streets and get really involved.
"It is possible to do anything with this reconstruction, for example people could climb the famous Glasgow Tower and look out across the exhibition.
"Really, our only limitation is maintaining historical accuracy - and the imagination of our design team. Unfortunately, no complete record of what was built remains because many of the original drawings have been lost."
To reconstruct the exhibition, the design team sourced old photographs and consulted a panel of architectural experts.
This is the second historical reconstruction the art school is working on.
The recreation of Clydebank's John Brown shipyard, as reported recently in the Evening Times, will be another tourist attraction on top of the Titan Crane when it opens in May.