An update on the Mackintosh Building Restoration

The Mackintosh Building Restoration project is coming along beautifully thanks to the restoration team and our very own Recovery Project Lead Polly Christie! Here she is with a wee update…

I thought I’d send through a quick update on what’s happening with the Mackintosh Building Restoration Project. As you will know from previous blog posts, I am working on the Recovery of the Archives and Collections, while our colleagues on campus are managing the restoration of the building. Due to the nature of both project, there is lots of overlap, as we assist with the research and manage many of the fixtures and fittings, and they facilitate and manage the planning for our return to the building (our reading room, exhibition spaces and stores).

Peter Trowles, our Curator, has been pivotal in helping the Design Team to comb through our archives for information on changes to the building – this was so important as the architects tried to assess and peel back the layers of modifications that the building has been subjected to since it opened in 1909. Peter’s research has been published on his RADAR research profile, where he looked at modifications that occurred between 1909-1949, 1949-1959, and 1959-1969.

The building project is really getting exciting with lots of major activities underway – why not read the latest bulletin?

One thing that has been particularly fascinating has been the extraordinary work of Laurence McIntosh, who are using traditional craftsmanship to rebuild the Mackintosh Library off site.  To see lots of photos of the prototype, check out GSA’s Flickr page.  They also created some wonderful videos of their work to recreate the pendants

You can see an image of the original pendants in one of our photography collections below:

image of library pendant
Photograph of balcony carvings in the library on the first floor of the Mackintosh Building (Archive Reference: GSAA/P/7/176)

 

There’s also a fascinating video showing how the ‘scollops’ are prepared and painted:

and an original image, from the archive, albeit black and white!

image showing scolloped spindles in the library
Mackintosh Library Scalloped spindles (Archive Reference: GSAA/P/7/170)

If you want to keep up to date with all the developments, as they happen, you can subscribe to get the regular bulletins by filling out the wee form on the GSA webpage.

Watch this space for more!