UKC

Just heard about this - could be potentially pretty serious:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-27541883

In reply to Fraser:

Desperately sad. Photos showing flames billowing from top-floor windows.

In reply to Fraser:

Reports on Twitter of people weeping in the street at the sight of this building going up in flames.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


Could be more related to all their Degree Show work going up in flames, but yep, it sounds pretty grim.

In reply to Fraser:

Oh blimey that's awful news! Partly for the building and partly, as you say, for the loss of all that work.

In reply to Tall Clare:

If it started in the basement at 12:30 and at the time of those photos the flames were coming out at high level, there's going to be a helluva lot of damage. The whole thing's pretty much wood, and old dry wood at that!

In reply to Fraser:

Add to that all the inevitably combustible things in an art school - not good.

In reply to Fraser:


I don't know, I'd be pretty upset at the sight and I'm sure a lot of other people are too. An essential part of the identity of the city of Glasgow - much more than just an art school.

In reply to Fraser:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-27544122
The news really doesn't sound good. Looks like there might be very little left of the interior.

Just awful.

In reply to Fraser:



Gutted, I'm Glasgow born myself and loved going there on open doors days , or any other opportunities. We still have The Willow tea rooms, and The Mackintosh House; the lighthouse;
House for an art lover; and Hill house ( close to where I now live) , but this will still be a big loss if it is badly damaged.

However, this building was so well documented ( as is all Macintosh's designs) it should be able to be rebuilt , if necessary. It looks like the fire is high up, so hopefully it will be restricted to the upper floor/ roof .

Thanks for the link Fraser.

In reply to Fraser:

Can't think of another building I admire more..... very sad

In reply to Jim C:

The fire started in the basement so it's gone right the way through the building.

In reply to Jim C:


It's reported to have started in the basement...

In reply to Fraser:

Smoke reported to be billowing across the M8 - gives some idea of the scale of the fire.

In reply to Fraser:

Glad no one is hurt.

In reply to Fraser:

Apparently today was the deadline for students handing in final portfolios. Just terrible news.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


You're right, but people don't cry for a building set on fire. Shocked and amazed perhaps but their own work going up in flames explains it better.

14:01

Mr Yuill said the art school would have been very busy. "We're working up to the end-of-year assessments, so all the students were installing their work today all over the Mackintosh building. There are a lot of very upset students here."

In reply to Fraser:
N.b, I seem to remember boing on the stairwell on a GSA tour, and seeing a sprinkler system.
I guess it was not up to the job in the is case.

Crying shame that the games will bring visitors that will want to see the sights, and will have to see this .

In reply to FreshSlate:



Muriel Grey burst into tears at the sight of the building on fire.

In reply to Tall Clare:

I think these are pretty exceptional circumstances. Awful stuff though, I wonder how they will assess them now?

In reply to FreshSlate:


Seriously, WTF??

In reply to FreshSlate:

It's more the work that will have gone into the exhibitions and portfolios, that can't simply be 'backed up to a memory stick'. I remember having idle conversations about this sort of thing and how awful it would be, when installing my degree show at Norwich, another art school housed in an old building (albeit not one with such architectural significance).

The tutors will be able to revert to marks for other work - this will have been for summative assessment but formative marks will exist.

In reply to Pids:


Robbie Coltrane recently filmed in there too, and had fond memories, I would not be Surprised if he would not have been similarly effected. And I'm not ruling out myself when I'm up there this weekend.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

I don't know if you follow the photographer Alastair Cook on FB or Twitter but he's just posted about how devastated he is, for all sorts of reasons including that he met his wife there. It's one of those buildings that's definitely more than just some anonymous classrooms.

In reply to Tall Clare:


https://twitter.com/thurible/status/469830158531436544

In reply to Tall Clare:


Absolutely.

In reply to Jim C:

I'll freely admit to being choked about this from a distance of 150 miles. If I was there I'd have no doubt that I'd be in tears.

In reply to Jim C:


Not just recently. Tutti Frutti, remember.

In reply to Tall Clare:


I've read the report now, you are right, I was being (unusually ) optimistic. Grim stuff.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


Unless it's their home they don't. Unless they are over emotional. The main thing is that everyone is O.K. The building is secondary.

In reply to FreshSlate:

I'd say in this case it's really not that straightforward.

In reply to Tall Clare:



You are right. Was not thinking of that.

In reply to Tall Clare:

How do you mean?

In reply to FreshSlate:

Are you for real??

When it comes to emotion, people do what they feel like. Not what you decide for them.

In reply to FreshSlate:

I mean partly that it's a very iconic building, as others have said, but also that Muriel Gray was, I understand, a student there and has had a long association with the school. It's a pretty standard idea that spaces where we invest a lot of our emotional energy (for want of a less fluffy term) are going to have more significance for us, whether good or bad.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


I am not deciding anything. I just think they're crying over their lost work, and not the building itself.

In reply to FreshSlate:

You're deciding that people don't cry over a building unless they're "overly" emotional. I disagree. I don't think it's overly emotional to get upset over the loss of a building like this - I suspect you don't begin to appreciate just what it means to people from Glasgow.

If it had been the City Chambers, for example, I don't think the reaction would have been anything like the same.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


I am not deciding what emotions people do or not have. I may judge someone as being overly emotional for crying over their escaped rabbit and I may also think people are overly emotional mourning a building. So yes, I think you are overly emotional. Perhaps I don't understand, and there will be flowers heaped outside and RIP plaques but I suspect not everyone is that soft.

In reply to FreshSlate:

And I think you fail to understand that this isn't just a building.

In reply to FreshSlate:

Think I must be another in the over emotional club then.

In reply to FreshSlate:


Yes everybody is safe and that is of paramount importance, bt this building is more than a school it's a work of art in itself and very much loved in Glasgow and Scotland as a whole.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:



What is/was so remarkable about it - I have heard the name but nothing more.

Catastrophic for students, clearly.

In reply to FreshSlate:
You are a fool because you are so narrow minded to think yours is the only way to think.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:
I shed a tear myself and I'm 130 miles away. Lots of memories for me and recently attended a memorial service for a good friend there.

S

In reply to MG:


Its unique design, and it being the most famous example of the Mackintosh style that has become synonymous with the city.

If you'd ever been to it I'm sure you'd appreciate this. Or maybe not.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

I was a student at the GSA from '80-'86 and have great memories of the place. It's a truly superb building, world-class, as is the new Stephen Holl one across the road IMO. The recent documentary 'Facing up to Mackintosh' showed how the bulk of students weren't too reverent about the place however, which is how an art school should be, iconic building or not.

If I'd seen it in flames, I don't think I'd have been in tears but I know some people have been and would have been. However I'm sure that nomatter how major the damage might seem at first, the building will be repairable, and it'll be reconstructed where necessary. I don't think it'll have been damaged beyond repair, part of the reason I suspect I'd not have shed a tear today. If I'd had work in readiness for the imminent Degree Show, there's a fair chance that can't be replaced and that would have had me fairly emotional.

That's just my own view and I appreciate others' may differ.

In reply to Slugain Howff:

Yep. Some place the UKC, eh? People who've never set eyes on the place suggesting that we've got no business being upset over its destruction...

In reply to Fraser:

Of course; everyone's different and I'm not saying that there's something wrong with you if you're not upset by what's happened.

In reply to Fraser:

Also - even if the place is rebuilt from the original plans, it'll no longer be the same - it'll be a replica.

In reply to MG:

It is/was for Scotland, a uniquely lovely Macintosh building, much loved and admired worldwide.
And it just kept on turning out brilliant artists, to this day.
It's a bit of a disaster for the art world, if it's destroyed.

In reply to dek:

Fair enough. The current BBC pictures perhaps don't capture its uniqueness.

In reply to Fraser:

Desperately sad, both for the students and the building - I can see the smoke on the horizon from work

In reply to Douglas Griffin:



Whilst I appreciate Mackintosh's designs they never really "did" it for me, more of an "Adams Style" man - but still sad that the building is on fire.

Whilst I have been in the City Chambers the memories of those are nowhere as pleasant as those that I have from the Art School in the early 90's

In reply to Douglas Griffin:
"Everyone's work on that side of the building is ruined. Even if it didn't catch fire it will be damaged extensively" - Hugh Thornhill, Student

I can see this student's priorities and why he might be devastated. They'll all be gutted.


.... I saw it earlier this year. You can do/feel/think whatever you like. I will do the same.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Another ex pat glaswegian stunned by the news.

This is/was more than just a building, its part of the identity of the city and a building of international significance.

A sad day.

Gregor

In reply to MG:

True, inside was fascinating, but at this time of year there would be lots of manic prep going on by students for assessment..... I'd be bloody gutted too!

In reply to FreshSlate:


I never suggested anything else.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


The very rare quality the GSA has is that it has absorbed and somehow displays the emotional patina from the student who have passed through its doors over the last century. As a student, I didn’t really appreciate how good a building it is…which is pretty poor considering I was studying architecture! It’s only with hindsight and hopefully by gaining a certain intellectual / architectural maturity that I can suggest that the quality of both the external elevations and the interior spaces is second to none IMO.

Every wee nook and cranny gets adopted by the students and made their own; so many spaces are totally bespoke as is every detail you can imagine, whether it’s a window, a light fitting, a door handle, a cabinet drawer an exposed truss etc. Some might find it all a bit OTT and overpowering, but when you consider the quality of design of every element of the building, the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts.

You’re right about it possibly ending up a ‘replica’. I suppose it’s like the classic car restoration argument. How much of the original do you need for it still to be the same object? Having said that, many repairs have already been done over the years to the building so I hope that enough of the physical wear and weathering which help make it so great hasn’t been completely lost, in a year or two it’ll be as good as ever. Here’s hoping.

In reply to Fraser:

Thanks for that. Here's hoping, as you say.

In reply to Fraser:

Tweet from 7 minutes ago says the fire is still apparently burning out of control.
https://twitter.com/thurible/status/469862159644889088

In reply to Fraser:

There are reports that the fire was started by an exploding projector in the basement of the building.

Meanwhile:
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/dundee/firefighters-tackle-blaze-at-...

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Now there's a building that would be improved by a bit of heat sculpting!

In reply to Fraser:

It's not only on the Art side that the GSA is world famous - they're doing some stunning work on laser scanning and recording heritage that is world leading, I hope that they've though to record their own home as well as they've been recording iconic landmarks around the world as part of Scottish 10!
I've no connection to it, but can completely understand the emotional response, hopefully it can be restored.

In reply to Fraser:

Desperate:
https://twitter.com/Daily_Record/status/469871616495992833

In reply to Douglas Griffin:



'Twas recently he was interviewed DG

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-26944548

In reply to Jim C:

Yes, that's why I said not just recently. There was a memorable scene with Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson from the GSA in Tutti Frutti, which first screened in 1987 or thereabouts.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Radio reports the Museum and library destroyed, irreplaceable books and unique fittings gone.

In reply to dek:

Not unexpected but still...

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


I have heard of TF , never watched it though.
( But then I never saw Take the High road , nor watched River City, all filmed nearby!)

I will try and see if I can find the scene you mention, sounds interesting.

In reply to Fraser:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-27553056
Structure 90% viable, 70% of contents saved. Got to say I thought the news would be worse.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


Yip. Hard to call it good news after what's happened but a good result. The firefighters did an amazing job.

In reply to FreshSlate:

Muriel Grey was in tears, people do cry for buildings on fire, people cry over all kinds of things.

In reply to Fraser:

This seems like an appropriate tribute.

http://m.youtube.com/results?q=Love%20goes%20to%20a%20building%20on%20fire&...

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

A French view of events
http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2014/05/23/ecosse-la-splendide-...

In reply to Fraser:

160 miles from the smoke but still choking.

In reply to FreshSlate:

That isn't what you were posting, you were demonstrating a lack of comprehension that anyone could be upset over a building and asserting that this must be so depsite at least three people on here who are neither grads from the school nor Glaswegians expressing their grief. FWIW, I work in the historic buildings biz and let me assure you that this is a massive deal indeed. You think no-one would care if Big Ben, Old Trafford or the Royal Liver Building crumbled to the ground?

I feel not only for the staff and students of the school but also for the people of Glasgow (and I'm an Edinburgher) for this is one THE most important and iconic buildings of the city.