The architect who helped create Glasgow's Burrell Collection museum has expressed concern over its multi-million pound redevelopment.
John Meunier, one of the architects behind the building, said the redesign should not "mess around" with the original.
The building, which opened in Glasgow's Pollok Park in 1983, was designed by Mr Meunier, Barry Gasson and Brit Andresen.
The £66m restoration will expand the building's available floor space, allowing 90% of the museum's 9,000-item collection to be displayed.
Architects John McAslan + Partners won the commission to carry out the work last year.
However, Mr Meunier, who is emeritus professor of architecture at Arizona State University, said he was concerned about the redesign, especially changes to the main entrance and the Hutton Rooms, which features furnishings from Burrell's castle near Berwick on Tweed.
In a letter to the architects, Mr Meunier asked for a meeting over the planned changes.
He said: "The issue for me is the long term and whether it retains its status as one of the best 20th century works of architecture in Scotland, superbly matching the architecture to the works of art, while continuing to honour the intentions of its progenitor [William Burrell].
"For it to do that a lot more has to be retained, including the extended entry sequence of graduated spaces, and the programmatic requirement of the will that the restored Hutton Rooms be retained."
He added: "There is obviously a lot more to discuss, including the careful insertion of elevators as all three levels come into play, but my main message is to mess around with the basic, experience, logic and composition of the original building as little as possible, and to exercise architectural creativity to meet your new goals in a way that sustains the material and formal language of the original."
Paddy Pugh, director of conservation and planning at architects McAslan, said he was sorry to hear of the comments.
He wrote to Mr Meunier: "We have the utmost respect for the building and have, as you know, taken a great deal of care to understand its design intent and significance.
"There is no doubt in our minds that The Burrell fully deserves its recognition and status as a Category A listed building."
He said the "visitor and curatorial expectations of public cultural buildings" had changed significantly over the almost 40 years since the building was designed.
He added: "Glasgow Life and The Burrell Renaissance, as custodians for both the building and the Collection, are absolutely convinced that changes to the gallery and display of objects are required in order to reverse that decline.
"Beyond repairing/replacing the roofs, facades and building services, the principle architectural changes are designed to improve access into and around the building."
Glasgow Life said it had not been contacted by Mr Meunier.
It said the "original, existing entrance will remain exactly the same, open and in use at all times".
It added: "Some changes to fabric will be made to improve access into and around the building to meet current requirements for visitors but design intent, plan-form, materiality, appearance, and character, will remain substantially unchanged."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel