Glasgow School of Art starts work on rebirth of fire-ravaged library

Inside what remains of Glasgow School of Art's world-famous library ahead of restoration work.

The team behind the planned rebirth of the iconic Mackintosh Building today offered the first glimpse into a Â£35 million transformation of the landmark.

A "forest of steel" scaffolding has been erected over the last few months to stabilise the fire-gutted structure of the library ahead of the restoration project.

Due for completion to allow students to return for the start of the new term in 2019, it will see the library's look returned as much as possible to how it was when it was completed in 1910.

A temporary roof has been erected over the Mackintosh Building ahead of its 35 million restoration.

Original designs by celebrated Glasgow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, as well as surviving stone pillars and salvaged light fittings from the building.

The art school is also shipping in several columns of Tulip wood, which was used in the original building, from the United States as part of its drive to honour Mackintosh's vision.

Kier Construction, the firm appointed to carry out the restoration, started work in July on the project, which Glasgow-based architects Page/Park have designed using surviving documents from the 1910 scheme.

Gordon Reid, business development manager at Kier, said: "We have a wealth of experience delivering internationally important heritage projects.

Work on the restoration of the Mackintosh Building is not due for completion until 2019.

"This expertise and transfer of knowledge to our site team is crucial on a restoration project like this, as we carefully blend traditional craft skills with modern engineering and state-of-the-art technology.

"We are currently replacing the stone in the library which has been significantly damaged in the fire. This will involve cutting new stone to the rough dimension of the old stone with modern tools before our craftsmen use hand tools to expertly finish the new stone to replicate the original stone."

Students were putting the finishing touches to end-of-year projects when the fire caught hold at lunchtime on 23 May 2014. The official investigation found the blaze was triggered by flammable gases from a canister of expanding foam.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service report also revealed that the rapid spread of the fire through the building was aided by the presence of original ventilation ducts and a large number of timber-lined walls.

A new fire-prevention system was in the latter stages of completion and was not operational on the day. Firefighters received huge praise after managing to salvage 90 per cent of the Mackintosh Building and rescuing around 70 per cent of its contents, including the “vast majority” of the art school’s archives.

A 12-week effort by forensic archaeologists to sift through the charred remains of the west wing, the most damaged part of the Mackintosh Building, uncovered parts of a studio clock and its mechanism, a silver salver, remains of dozens of the lamps from the library and a number of rare books. Some 90 oil paintings, including two by Mackintosh himself, and around 8000 books and journals were all lost.

The art school said more than 600 pieces of the lamps salvaged from the remains of the library would be able to create 29 brand new lights and be used for part of another seven.

Project manager Sarah Mackinnon said: "It’s taken a year of work by the restoration team with our colleagues from archives and collections, to develop our conservation methodology and sort the light fragments into light ‘kits.'

"We need 53 lights to reinstate Mackintosh’s original scheme, so the missing lights will be reproduced from scratch."