RESIDENTS and businesses living in the shadow of the burnt out shell of Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building have reacted with weariness to the announcement of a seven-year-long reconstruction.
Muriel Gray, chair of the School of Art board, said the building would be rebuilt as a working art school.
She told The Herald on Sunday: “We are resolved that the Mackintosh comes back as a working art school, as a major player, a cultural leader for the city and the Scottish economy.”
She said: “It can be rebuilt. The absolute genius of Mackintosh was his modernity. The modern technology now to do it is there, but not only that, this can be a huge project for our students and community, to be part of the rebuild, getting our own students involved in research projects as it goes up.
“It is absolutely coming back. It will be beautiful. It will be as Mackintosh designed it, to the millimetre.
“How long will a rebuild take? People argue anywhere between four and seven years.”
She added the duration of a rebuild would “depend on the insurance money, getting the right people in place to do it, building regulations, all the standard technical and financial stuff.”
David Hutchison, of the Sauchiehall Street Inner Cordon Businesses, hit out at Gray.
He told the Evening Times: “We can’t believe she is so disconnected from the community.
“It was a kick. The has been no communication from the Art School, we are being spoken at rather than spoken to, there has been no meaningful dialogue.”
“We understand it has significant cultural importance but the local community will be living on a building site for 10 years. It is thoughtless. They are unaffected on a daily basis. “They do not live in the area.
“There is a world of difference from how they think in their ivory towers and how everyone else feels.”
Hutchinson added: “It’s not purely about the Mackintosh.
“It has destroyed the ABC, the CCA is badly affected. It is really bad for the traders on Sauchiehall Street, some might not survive.”
The A-listed building went up in flames in June. It was the second time in four years that the School of Art had been gutted by fire.
A full investigation can’t begin until fire service experts can enter the building.
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