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The Glasgow Herald in 2001 wrote:A GEORGIAN villa is emerging after being entombed in a busy city centre street for more than 140 years.
Architects refurbishing the #10.7m Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow have revealed the house within the more familiar Grecian Buildings that were created by Alexander "Greek" Thomson in about 1860.
Probably owned by a wealthy merchant and built around 1820, the villa was one of several that once lined Sauchiehall Street.
The Grecian Building was built within the gardens of the villa, which has been rediscovered by architects Page and Park hidden behind decades of plasterwork and false ceilings.
Office staff at CCA, who say they had caught glimpses of the hidden villa in the past, have watched in amazement as the full scale of the house became clear.
The substantial two-tier sandstone villa, now covered by a glass roof, stands about 15ft high on iron stilts that were put in place at some time in the past to allow underground excavations.
Two handsome pillars frame the front door, which would have had a flight of steps leading to the garden and on to Sauchiehall Street.
Karen Pickering, project manager with Page and Park, based at the Italian Centre in Cochrane Street, Glasgow, said: "It really is quite exciting to see the villa being revealed after it was entombed within the Grecian Building for so long.
"It must have been a fairly wealthy merchant who owned such a property around the time of the industrial revolution. We don't know who they were and finding such records is very difficult.
"As the city continued to grow, this area became less residential and more commercial. Perhaps this family then moved out to a similar or larger property in the west end."
After two-and-a-half years of renovation work costing #10.7m, the CCA plans to reopen the arts venue in October.
The villa, transformed with the help of #7m lottery money from the Scottish Arts Council, will become the central performance area, and a courtyard cafe will allow visitors to relax in the former gardens. Two new gallery spaces are being created, with state-of-the-art technical facilities, as well as a shop and offices.
Morag Hendry, the CCA marketing manager, said: "The architects have brought together seven different buildings and established one unit under the same roof. By stripping away old walls and ceilings, the beauty and rawness of the original stonework has been revealed.
"The idea will be to come into the CCA, have a stroll around this wonderful old villa, use its garden space, go inside and take a walk overhead on specially built walkways."
In an image taken in the first half of the nineteenth century, an extension to the villa can be viewed "end on", on Scott Street, just up from Sauchiehall Street, near Glasgow School of Art.
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