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Between 1845 and 1899 The Glasgow School of Art was housed in a variety of buildings across the City. Under the Directorship of Francis H Newbery (1885 - 1914) an architectural competition was launched to design a purpose built School of Art in Glasgow on a site purchased, with a donation from the Bellahouston Trust, on Renfrew Street. The firm of Honey Keppie and Mackintosh with a design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh won the competition.
That building is now internationally and nationally recognised as Charles Rennie Mackintosh's masterwork (it is a Category A listed building and a Registered Museum under the Museums Registration Scheme, administered by the MLAC) and is now the only public Mackintosh building still fulfilling its original purpose.
A vital heritage asset, epitome of Mackintosh's work among a cluster of examples in Glasgow, Charles Jencks (architectural critic and historian) considers the building "has become, since the mid-sixties, the most seminal building in Scotland." Recognising this, Glasgow City Council, with the support of The Glasgow School of Art amongst others, is pursuing a bid to win World Heritage status for its collection of Charles Rennie Mackintosh landmarks, with the GSA's Mackintosh Building as the major element of the application.
The Buildings brilliance and inventiveness delights and excites the public, architects, artists and designers alike. Crucial to its reputation and influence is its continuous use as a working art school and its significant collections of Mackintosh furniture and works on paper; an important Fine Art, Design and Architecture collection; a large plaster cast collection; a unique textile collection; deposited and institutional archives including the Gillespie Kidd & Coia Archive.
In the book Mackintosh's Masterwork, Dr James Macaulay states, "It is without doubt one of the great works of arts and crafts architecture of the turn of the century. Mackintosh's response to a difficult site and a demanding brief is a creative synthesis of opposite - austere and delicate, dark and bright, derivative yet innovative. Whilst the exterior impression is one of imposing grandeur, the building's sombre facades and towering outer wall owe much to the Scottish baronial tradition and the interior reveals itself to be a lively and complex set of spaces. Although quoting art nouveau in some of the detailing, the overall effect is of looking forward rather than back". These words are best explained visually, either by seeing the building itself or photographs of the interior and exterior.
A copy of the Masterwork book is enclosed, demonstrating quite clearly the uniqueness of this special building but the words and sentiments of others are a powerful endorsement of the importance of the Mackintosh Building:
"The Glasgow School of Art continues to excite architects and designers to try new spatial and figurative moves. It has become, oddly enough, a symbol of Glasgow in America and Japan (perhaps because of its slight overtones of Scottish Baronial and its rough cast facing). The fact that it has unbroken use from its beginning as an art school and been a place where so many important designers have worked, turns it into something like the Japanese notion of a 'National Treasure'. The idea that it can achieve further life in the same mode, but at a higher pitch, is to be applauded and supported with the utmost vigour."
Charles Jencks, architectural historian
"The Mackintosh Building - one of the greatest achievements of all time, compared in scale and majesty to Michelangelo"
Robert Venturi, architect (Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates)
"Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art...is one of the UK's truly iconic buildings, by one of the small number of Scotland's artists of genuinely world class. It is a great tribute to the School that it accepts the management challenges of continuing to run the building for its original purpose instead of taking the perhaps easier option of turning it into a visitor attraction. This makes the visitor experience more authentic and more impressive than in preserved buildings."
Mark O'Neill, Head of Museums and Galleries, Glasgow City Council
"...to position the city internationally [we] will once more be paying homage to Mackintosh as it provides us with the opportunity to differentiate the extraordinary from the ordinary."
Eddie Friel, former Chief Executive, Greater Glasgow & Clyde Valley Tourist Board
"Mackintosh is celebrated around the world today as one of the most significant architects, designers and artists to have emerged from Scotland and the growing strength of the Mackintosh brand is undoubtedly valuable in terms of attracting regional, national and international tourists."
Christopher Lynch, Brand Manager - Cities, Culture & Heritage, Visit Scotland
"I love the way Mackintosh finds a balance between Art Nouveau and the austerity of Japan."
George Melly, jazz musician and author
The unique aspect of visiting the School is not only the appreciation of the quality and detail of the spaces, but also witnessing the building in use as an art school - the purpose for which it was designed and for which it is supremely effective. In 2003-04, just over 20,000 visitors participated in a guided tour of the Mackintosh Building, reflecting the international interest in which Mackintosh and in particular the School of Art, is held. A report commissioned by the School from Scott Wilson Scotland Ltd projected an anticipated range of annual visitor numbers between 29,000 and 42,000 to developed visitor facilities at The Glasgow School of Art. The study recognised the upper level range estimate of c42,000 annual visits may create potential incompatibility with the School's operation and administration. The GSA's proposals are therefore based on adopting the lower end projection of just over 33,000 visits per annum after project completion. This is in additional to the many thousands of people who visit the School, engaging with us through continuing education courses (evening classes, Easter and summer schools), wider access and outreach projects, open days, exhibitions and general 'business' visitors.