Senior figures at Glasgow City Council, which owns the city centre building – refurbished in 1999 at a cost of £12.5 million – are determined to keep the building functional as a visible centre for the celebration of architecture and design, and new plans to keep it running will be discussed by its executive committee this Friday.
Talks are ongoing with Culture and Sport Glasgow, the arm’s length cultural body, to become the principal lease holder of the property, essentially running it for the city council.
The council plans involve the possible addition of a new architecture and design bookshop in its ground floor, a new cafe on its top floor, and the expansion of the work being done there by Architecture and Design Scotland.
There are also plans to introduce two new exhibits for the building, one based around the history of Glasgow, the other featuring items from the city’s vast museum collections.
Culture and Sport Glasgow have indicated they will make a decision on the lease this month, and could take on the building as part of its portfolio as early as September.
Meanwhile, a group including Steve Inch, the council’s executive director of development and regeneration; Seona Reid, the director of Glasgow School of Art, and other interested figures, has been formed to plan a longer-term vision for the building, and a business plan looking ahead as far as 2014 is being prepared.
The plan to keep the Lighthouse as a public centre of architecture and design means, if successful, the council will not be liable to repay Heritage Lottery Fund money worth £3.5m if it closed or was rented out to solely private clients.
The building’s operating costs are around £500,000 per year and the plan for 2010/11, including money from the council, new commercial tenants and A&DS, would generate £700,000.
