GSAGLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART LAUNCHES £50M COMPETITION FOR NEW BUILDING The Glasgow School of Art has launched a competition a new landmark £50m building to rival the world-famous main building designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
It today launches the international competition to find an architect for a new building for the 2500 square metre site opposite the Mackintosh building, replacing those which currently stand on the site in Garnethill.
The Mackintosh building at 167 Renfrew Street, which was constructed in two phases in 1896 and 1909 and is undergoing a £8.5m revamp of its own, was Mackintosh's largest commission and is seen as his architectural masterpiece.
The site currently holds three buildings, which will be demolished in 2011: the student union building, dating to the mid-1930s, the Newbury Tower, built in 1972, and the Foulis Building, from 1968.
The buildings, all seen as not suited to their purpose, are all to come down and be replaced by a new building, or buildings, which should be in place opposite the Mackintosh building by 2013.
Seona Reid, director of GSA, said that whatever building is made, it would need to be responsive to its students - who are being consulted as part of the redevelopment - and that "a world class school needs a world class estate".
She said: "The Mackintosh building is an incredible place, there are lots of nooks and crannies where you can go to be informal, have a chat, meditate on something, or just look over Glasgow, and it is important the new building also has these fluid, informal spaces where students can debate, think, run into each other and meet - this should not just be another office block.
"We have no preconceptions over what the final design might be, but it will not be a copy of the Mackintosh. We are looking for architects of imagination who can design a building, or buildings, which can sit and work in that space - we assume that some of the larger architecture names will go for it, but we don't want to close the door to the smaller parties either."
The competition is being run by Malcolm Reading Consultants. For more information, go to:
http://www.malcolmreading.co.uk/gsa/