The unthinkable happened last week when Glasgow's Mackintosh School of Art building came perilously close to being consumed by flames, saved simply by the rightly lauded efforts of Glasgow's fire fighters.

This tragic turn of events prompted Kevin McKenna to put pen to paper, and I have to confess to being a little confused as to the point he is trying to make ("Glaswegians must be at the heart of art school rebuild", The Herald, May 30).

He seems to be suggesting that not enough Glaswegians confirm their love of the building by visiting it and taking more of an interest in its everyday life. Really?

I take umbrage at this view and would inform him that I, along with many of my non-"art establishment" Glaswegians have patronised the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in both a monetary and footfall sense for many years, and along with many others have offered our services to the GSA management in any number of capacities, happily, willingly and for no financial gain, to help rebuild what we have lost.

His final statement regarding the rebuilding of the library is ill-judged. Does Mr McKenna really expect that the management at GSA, Historic Scotland, and the many specialists who will be involved will stand idly by and allow a travesty of Mackintosh's library design to be rebuilt?

While we would rather still have the original library, the new one will be built exactly to his design, in better materials, and not by the lowest bidder as would have been the case originally. In fact, the final result will undoubtedly show the genius and finesse of the designer's intention, in a way he could never have envisaged, not having access to virtually limitless funds.

His comments regarding the missing sprinkler system will wring hands for many years to come but what's done is done and we need to look forward.

Stephen Henson,

207 Weymouth Drive,

Glasgow.

NOW that the dust has settled on the remains of the Glasgow School of Art it is time to take stock of the tragic loss of an architectural masterpiece of the early 20th century. Shock, sadness and genuine anguish at the destruction of an icon that, sadly, was not appreciated in its time forcing Mackintosh to leave Scotland has subsided, but the taste still remains.

I looked at a photograph in The Herald of the new building beside the modern excuse for 21st century architecture and wondered: could this have been the genius himself with shock, sadness and genuine anguish not wanting his astounding creation of early 20th century to have to endure residing beside an abomination of the new?

Don McNeil,

Higher Mid Village,

Newton,

Argyll.

DURING the late 1950s I and my fellow students were studying architecture at the Glasgow "Tech", the Royal College of Science and Technology (RCS&T), now the University of Strathclyde. Over the five-year course, the highlight of each week was our one day we spent at the Glasgow School of Art.

The mornings we spent in drawing and painting, eventually finishing in life painting, and in the afternoons we had to work in a different arts and crafts department each year. We finished with memorable history of architecture classes. I also did evening classes - a glutton, or maybe it was my art school girlfriend. And so over the five years I studied in nearly every department except needlework and embroidery.

What wonderful staff there were at that time, the Armours, Reeves and Mackinson in painting, Benno Schotz in sculpture, Henry Hellier and Jack Notman in interior design, Bob Stewart in textiles and screen printing, and others in silver­smithing and pottery. But my favourite was with Jimmy Goodchild in industrial design, where I spent many wonderful hours.

When I look back over 60 years as an architect and product designer, I realise how privileged and lucky I was ... none of this lasted long for architects. Within a decade or so and the advent of computers, sketching designs with pencils and pens had vanished.

I looked yesterday at the partly damaged wonderful School of Art, and was pleased to see that it could be and must be restored, to continue inspiring students just as I was.

Iain Barclay,

Peterswell, Barochan Road, Houston.

I ATTENDED the long-awaited re-opening of the Kelvingrove Band­stand ("Musicians help give revived bandstand a new lease of life", The Herald, May 30). We were treated to a wonderful inaugural concert by students from Hillhead High School, the Glasgow Gaelic School and the members of the Brass Aye band. It was a fitting opening after years of hard campaigning by the Save the Bandstand volunteer group.

And yet, after listening to the initial obligatory and self-congratulatory speechifying by and for the assembled invited guests (which made almost no reference to, let alone thanked, the campaign), the Lord Provost and her retinue of Very Important Panjan­drums from the cooncil promptly exited before the concert (with the notable exception of Councillor Martha Wardrop). Another swathe of citizens duly alienated from politicians. A bittersweet morning.

Kevin Philp,

36 Paisley Road, Renfrew.