The main building of the Glasgow School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, burned last week. It was the second major fire in the building in four years, and unlike the first one, there doesn’t appear to be much left to restore. The interior structure was wood and seems to have failed completely, taking the beautiful public rooms with it; early reports are that the exterior stonework may be compromised as well, which would mean that there is no original material that can be saved. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the walls can be stabilized. Even so, real restoration appears to be impossible, and it’s not certain that reconstruction could capture the same feeling as the original.
Like all of Mackintosh’s work, the school was wildly idiosyncratic. It doesn’t belong to any recognized style, although in some ways it reflects the Art Nouveau movement that was shaking things up in Europe at the time of its design. There is no famous single view because the design didn’t work that way. Every detail was designed to work together – to a degree of obsession not seen in the U.S. except maybe in Frank Lloyd Wright’s work – and the effect was a sum far greater than any part even though the parts themselves were fascinating. Your attention was pulled around the building by the next window, or balustrade, or clock, and you could only take it all in by spending some real time with it.
The world is full of great architecture, much of which I will never see first hand. I was lucky enough to see the Mack, about twenty years ago, and I’ll add my voice to those who loved the building: this is a tragic loss.
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