Glasgow School of Art Fire

[ursus arctos]

This is absolutely awful news.

The library



is/was one of my favourite rooms in the world, and the entire structure is/was a gem. Add to that very talented young artists who appear to have lost virtually all of their work, and you have a situation that is as bad as it gets without loss of life or serious injury.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Never in a million years would I ever have thought a building fire could create almost a sense of grief with me, but this does. I'm genuinely in shock. I can only hope the news is not as bad as it seems at the moment.

It's difficult to explain to someone from outside the city the love and affection that Glasgow holds for the School of Art, it's an iconic symbol of Glasgow and a huge source of pride, and this is before bringing into consideration the fact that all this wonderful Rennie Mackintosh design has gone. It's heartbreaking, it really is.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

One of my favourite Glasgow landmarks. A terrible, terrible shame.

[RobM]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Hideous, just preparing for the degree show as well.

Heartbreaking.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Dreadful, dreadful news.

[ursus arctos]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

For New Yorkers, this has eerie echoes of last year's fire at the Pratt Institute.

But in Friday’s early hours, a fast-moving fire ravaged the top two floors of the historic main building at the private art, design and architecture college in Brooklyn, destroying dozens of art studios and the precious student works they contained.

Pratt isn't the Glasgow School of Art and has never produced a Macintosh, and the role it plays in the cultural life of New York and Brooklyn simply cannot be compared, but the parallels in loss of work are creepy.

[Slightly Brown]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

I spoke with my sister today. She studied there and she said you always felt like you were walking into a building that immediately encouraged you to do the best creative thing you could possibly do - no matter what that creative thing was. I agreed with that.

[blameless]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

90% of the building and 70% of the contents saved, apparently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-27553056

When they rebuild it, some sort of fire suppression system would seem to be in order.

[Paul S]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Fire suppression system? You mean sprinklers.

[WOM]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

No. Sprinklers would ruin shit. Some kind of inert gas/powder thing, I'd think.

[Slightly Brown]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Paul S wrote: Fire suppression system? You mean sprinklers.

The hotel I stayed in last week had "tea- and coffee-making facilities" in my room. Or a kettle to you and me.

[Slightly Brown]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

WOM wrote: No. Sprinklers would ruin shit. Some kind of inert gas/powder thing, I'd think.

From the final shows I've been to, it would be saving loads of photographs that girls took of their own feet. A Tarantino dream, those events.

[Janik]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Not necessarily the best solution for a building housing art works. In most places the absolute key is saving the fabric of the building, with the contents considered replaceable; in an art gallery or school the considerations are a bit more complex than that.

Or what WOM said in response to Paul S.

[Slightly Brown]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Thing is, though, the building is considered a work of art. I imagine a fourth-year show would be sacrificed to save, say, the library in that building.

[Slightly Brown]

Glasgow School of Art Fire



vs

[caja-dglh]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

There were reports today that they saved the library, though they since seem to have backtracked quite a lot. Most of the Glasweigans I have heard from find it hard to believe there would not have been considerable damage.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Confirmation that the library has been lost. Dreadful, just dreadful.

The better news is that it appears that due to the extraordinary efforts of the fire brigade, the building is still intact and only some student work has been lost. I daresay the library and other damaged areas will be rebuilt to exactly Rennie Mackintosh's specifications so that one could not tell the difference but it is still architecturally an enormous blow.

[Gawpus]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

That statement's quite heartening considering how bad it looked at the time. You could smell the burning all over town, most people assumed the whole building was going to be lost.

[blameless]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

It certainly helps that the biggest and most modern fire station in Scotland is only half a mile up the road, but yes, the fire service seem to have played a blinder here under the circumstances.

And by "fire suppresion" I meant CO2, not water - evacuate the place, flood the building with inert gas to starve the fire of the oxygen it needs.

[Femme Folle]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Do they know what started it?

[Guy Profumo]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

WOM wrote: No. Sprinklers would ruin shit. Some kind of inert gas/powder thing, I'd think.

Quite right. Protect made things, but kill people.

You have got one weird sense of priorities kiddo.

[Gawpus]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Femme Folle wrote: Do they know what started it?

Not officially yet (I don't think), but the BBC are reporting that Eyewitnesses said the fire appeared to have started when a projector exploded in the basement of the building on Renfrew Street in the city centre.

[Bored Of Education]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

A fire suppression system was due to be installed imminently.

It's nice to see all spokespeople from the school in fulsome praise of the fire-fighters.

[Femme Folle]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

I hope this is remembered the next time they ask for a pay increase.

[Bored Of Education]

Glasgow School of Art Fire

Well, all that saving of people isn't so I doubt this will.