images of former Glasgow Herald building : David Churchill
Glasgow Herald - Information
Typical for a Scottish newspaper operation (eg former headquarters of The Scotsman, North Bridge, Edinburgh) the lower floors at the Herald were used as production and the upper floors for the editorial and commercial offices.
A building with great heritage: the former Glasgow Herald building was remodelled by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1893-95, his first major public building.
Like so many Scottish contemporary buildings, the newspaper columns have focused on the problems - generally costs - rather than the architecture. Page & Park Architects have a fine pedigree and were a logical choice for such a project.
The Lighthouse Mack Room photo ; Glasgow Herald: photo by Steffen Schefer
The Lighthouse, although in centre of the city, is in a difficult site, tucked away off the main drag. This means signage and marketing have to be well-organised, and the logo designed by Mariscal - who did the Barcelona Olympics logo (the dog holding a torch) - makes a strong impact. With a lack of easily-visible street frontage the Lighthouse image that immediately springs to my mind (even though I'm an architect) is the 'three-legged' logo of, well, a lighthouse. Nevertheless, the interior spaces at the former Herald building are stacked vertically up a brightly-coloured atrium, calmed by areas of fair-faced concrete and linked by an elevator. The exhibitions are designed to be accessible and don't focus purely on architecture; there is an observation deck at the top from which to view the city.
Interior graphics and displays at the Glasgow Herald were designed by Javier Mariscal and designers lwd. The £12m Glasgow Lighthouse opened in Summer 1999, with two main exhibition galleries, conference room, ground-floor cafe, smaller display areas, education and IT suites, Mackintosh interpretation area and a Design-into-Business Centre. The Lighthouse forms a permanent addition to Scotland's cultural heritage and a concrete reminder of Glasgow 1999: UK City of Architecture and Design. It's stated remit is to ensure that the widest possible audience will be able to use the building to explore architecture and design in all their many meanings, presented in engaging informative and challenging ways.
Comments / photos for the Glasgow Herald Architecture pages welcome:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it