Achi news desk-
But they have remained non-committal about having any contact after being questioned by Professor Alan Dunlop, one of Scotland’s leading architects who once threw his hat in the ring to become the next chairman of the GSA and who would consult with stakeholders for the project. And he refused any involvement in supporting the project financially.
A fire in June 2018 destroyed the building as it neared the end of a multi-million pound restoration project following an earlier fire in May 2014.
Although a design team was supposed to be in place, according to the GSA timetable, by August 2022 – that has yet to happen with the hope of any council planning approval for the project not expected until spring 2026 at the earliest. , according to estimates based on the GSA’s own schedule.
It was confirmed at the end of March, that no new architect procurement process was currently taking place and no new timetable had been defined. According to the school’s project programme, that process alone is expected to take four months.
Funding arrangements had still not been confirmed and the GSA has not yet contacted the Scottish or UK Governments in any request to secure funding to cover the capital costs of any restoration work. The business case timetable mentioned confirming funding arrangements in April 2022.
And no action has yet been taken to appoint a main contractor for the restoration of one of Scotland’s most internationally recognized landmarks.
The original GSA risk management analysis categorized delays of more than six months with the project as “catastrophic.”
A contrast was made with the work done on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was severely damaged by fire in 2019 and is expected to reopen at the end of this year.
Mr Dunlop, who has been pushing for an end to the inertia, asked HES to act after contacting its chief executive Alex Paterson with articles from the Herald’s series about the future of the building.
He asked: “Given that the Mackintosh School of Art was probably the most important work of architecture in Scotland and of international renown, does HES have an opinion on the future of the rebuild?”
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Its director of heritage Elizabeth McCrone responded: “Local authorities are consulting with us about work on listed buildings A and B. As we will be the statutory consultee for listed building consent applications that are submitted for the building, we will give advice to us to the local authority, which is the decision maker, when they ask us for our input.”
He also asked about funding issues for faithful restoration and whether HES would contribute to any rescue bid.
The response from Ms McCrone was ‘no’.
“The funding for our grants comes from Grant Aid received from the Scottish Government and therefore our grants are considered public funding,” he said.
“Conservation projects that we can support focus on the repair of a historic structure in favor of restoration work, and therefore the proposal to restore the Art School building would not be something that we could directly support financially.
“Given the proposed traditional nature of the work there may be additional areas of activity that we can support, such as training in traditional skills or community engagement with heritage. Project activities of this type would need to meet our grant priorities and would be assessed using our competitive application process.
“If the project team is interested in discussing this they can submit a Statement of Interest…”
Mr Dunlop said he was “disappointed” by the response saying: “HES is not committing to anything that could direct or determine the future of the building…”
He said: “They will not express their views on the direction the project should take, unfortunately what I expected.
“I believe that Historic Environment Scotland should be clearer and more decisive in their views on the future of the GSA, particularly in terms of restoration and reproduction, which in my opinion would not be possible today without a huge compromise on the original Mackintosh design i.
“They are after all the main conservation advisory body.”
One of the issues that is understood to have put a spanner in the works is a complex process for procuring architects to design the project.
The search to lead the project was searched in March, last year before a reset that has never happened.
Architects John McAslan + Partners were the original top scorers in the bid to oversee the rebuild. But it was then awarded to another company, understood to be Hawkins\Brown after a recount.
Prominent architects and painters have expressed despair at the lack of action and believe the government should be stepping in to ensure Scotland preserves the legacy of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
The art school’s business plan envisages a “financial and affordable” rebuilding project over a period of around five years.
Muriel Gray, the first female chair of the GSA’s board of governors, said five and a half years ago, three months after the 2018 fire that people argued that rebuilding would take “anywhere between four and seven years” but that it would “depend on insurance money, getting the right people in place to do it, building regulations, all the standard technical and financial stuff”.
A spokesperson for HES said: “As outlined in our response to Mr Dunlop, as a statutory consultee in the planning system we will consult on plans for the art school once these have been developed, and we will be happy to give advice after we offer to comment on it.”
