The competition to find an architect to design the new £50m building for the Glasgow School of Art has attracted more than 150 entries from across the globe.
In March, the GSA launched in March an international competition to find an architect for a new building for the huge site opposite the iconic Charles Rennie Mackintosh building, replacing those that currently stand on the site in Garnethill.
That site has three buildings, which will be demolished in 2011: the student union building, dating to the mid-1930s; the Newbury Tower, built in 1972; and the Foulis Building, from 1968.
These buildings, all seen as either shabby or not suited to their purpose, are to come down and be replaced by a new building, or buildings, which should be in place opposite the Mackintosh building by 2013.
Now closed, the first stage of competition attracted 152 entries, with 58 received from outside the UK including the US, Japan, Australia, Spain, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Among the applicants, details of which are confidential, were 11 practices from Building Design's World Architecture Top 100, a large number previously shortlisted for the Stirling Prize and three Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureates, the top prize in architecture.
When the competition was launched, the GSA indicated it wanted the top architects in the world, sometimes called "starchitects", to apply for the commission, and it appears their wish has been granted: recent Pritzker Prize winners include Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.
Whoever wins will have perhaps the most prime site for redevelopment available in Glasgow's city centre.
The competition jury will assess all entries before announcing the shortlist of up to seven practices on May 22. The winning team will be revealed in September.
The panel of judges will be chaired by David Mackay of MBM Arquitectes, with broadcaster and writer Muriel Gray as deputy chair.
The redevelopment will be financed through Scottish Funding Council support, the GSA's own cash balances, land sales, borrowing and philanthropic sources.
The first-phase funding of £50m is being provided by the Scottish Funding Council, with the final cost of estate development close to £94m.
The GSA is widely regarded as one of Europe's leading art schools.
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