Glasgow School of Art: Fire crews battle to save building

Very sad.

Firefighters are continuing to fight a major blaze at the A-listed Glasgow School of Art - one of Scotland's most iconic buildings.

Eyewitnesses said the fire appeared to have started when a projector exploded in the basement of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building just before 12:30.

The roof space is still well alight. It is feared large parts of the art school have been destroyed.

Everyone in the building was said to have escaped safely

Here is why it is such an iconic building

Charles Rennie Mackintosh is lauded as Scotland's most influential architect and designer, with the art school building which bears his name considered by many to be his greatest masterpiece.

Mackintosh was a 28-year-old junior draughtsman at a Glasgow architecture firm when he drew up the designs for the building, which features distinctive heavy sandstone walls and large windows.

The dramatic art nouveau design took about 12 years to be completed, opening in 1909, but it signalled the birth of a new style in 20th Century European architecture.

The president of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, Iain Connelly, said the value of the building "goes well beyond Glasgow or even Scotland".

He added: "It is a work of architectural heritage of world renown and its influence on 20th century architecture is immeasurable. Scotland has seen the loss of an international treasure which reflects the genius of one of our greatest ever architects."

More here....

www.bbc.co.uk...



Not only that, the final year art students were just completing setting up their art work submissions for their finals. All that's gone now for these students

Here's a short film about its history


Here's another of the schools choir last year...


Rainbows
Jane

Major bummer, man...Maybe this will light a fire under some of the artist's asses (not sure if pun intended) to come back hitting harder. Rebuild it bigger, more beautiful, and more flame resistant.

a reply to: skunkape23
The students who are accepted there are already the cream of the crop so to speak. They are our future artists of all sorts of ilk. It's a world renowned school in the art world.
Glasgow already has built a new building a few years back. But this is the problem we have with so many of our buildings in this country that are steeped in history and heritage.

Rainbows
Jane

great news ....

Firefighters battling the blaze at Glasgow School of Art's Mackintosh building say they have prevented the destruction of both the structure and the majority of its contents.

www.bbc.co.uk...

quite relieved to read that ...

a reply to: Segenam

Wow! Three cheers to the Glasgow firemen!!!
That is brilliant news to come on here to find today Segenam......thank you. I haven't seen any news (as in MSM) yet today, so I shall toodle off now to watch your link. I hope I'll find that most of the students final submissions are OK too.

Again, thank you
Rainbows
Jane