AS a founder member of the Mackintosh Society, I fully agree with V Andrew Traub's incredulity (Letters, September 4) of David Mullane's view that the Glasgow School of Art Library should not be rebuilt but have instead a high-functioning space, somewhat like a common room ("Mackintosh library plan should be ditched, says expert", The Herald, September 3).
This is total sacrilege of the most important of Mackintosh's buildings, and especially when across the road is the modern Reid building which has all the other facilities that the students would require to liaise with each other.
Mr Traub is correct in his definition of "Mockintosh" which implies a cheap and degrading imitation in a "style" of Mackintosh. but the restoration of the library will be treated with complete respect for style and materials by the team of architects and experts.
Pperhaps Mr Mullane would like to express his thoughts on the Art Lovers Building in Bellahouston Park, which has been meticulously constucted from drawings and understandings of Mackintosh's intentions, and has been a complete success, with no criticism of being "Mockintosh" in style.
William Sharp,
1/5 Victoria Mansions,
5 Old Castle Gardens,
Glasgow.
YOUR correspondent V Andrew Traub is mistaken if he thinks the Glasgow Scool of Art library had not outlived its usefulness and changed function.
It may have been a dripping roast for the tourist trade but had not been used as intended for many years. The same was true of the magnificent professors' studios in the Hen Run.
A careful replication, howver well done, could not replace the century of patination, real and imagined. The Glasgow School of Art is an astonishing living building.
Let it breathe. I have no doubt that Mackintosh would.
Robin Hume,
Ashpad,
Kirkoswald.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article