Smokes issues from Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art Building.Courtesy Ben McNally via Instagram

It has been a sad weekend for those of us who love the work of the designer and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Reports of the fate of his masterwork, the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), have been pouring in after the building caught fire on Friday.

An assessment of the site on Saturday has brought both good news and bad. The older wing of the school, home to the Mackintosh museum and furniture gallery, has escaped mostly unscathed. But the west wing and Mackintosh’s beautiful library, important and beloved not only for its sophisticated design but also for the archival material conserved there, has sustained significant damage from the flames, which started in the basement.

The building's celebrated library was tragically lost in Friday's fire.Courtesy Scottish Fire and Rescue

More than 100 firefighters worked to save the Art Nouveau structure, at one time forming a “human wall” to arrest the spread of the flames. But saving a historic building in a fire like this is very tricky, the assistant chief fire officer David Goodhew told the Daily Mail yesterday. “‘It is not a building designed with fire safety in mind and the things that  make it so attractive, like the wooden panels, offer firefighters a significant challenge,” he said....Continue Reading

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