Herald Building Glasgow by Rennie Mackintosh, Lighthouse photos, Architect, Mitchell St location, Architecture picture

Glasgow Herald Building

Scottish Architecture Centre : The Lighthouse, Mitchell Street, Strathclyde, western Scotland

post updated 10 December 2023 ; 25 January 2022

Date built: 1895

Design: Rennie Mackintosh architect

Photos by David Churchill / Phil Sayer

image : David Churchill

Glasgow Herald Building by Rennie Mackintosh

Herald Building Glasgow

Refurbished as The Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Architecture, Design and the City, 56 Mitchell St, by Page & Park Architects in 1998-99

Address: 87-94 / 60-76 Mitchell St

Gordon Chambers / Glasgow Herald Building – architects / date:
Burnet, Boston & Carruthers / 1903-06
John Baird / 1867-70
Charles Rennie Mackintosh / 1893-95

images of former Glasgow Herald building : David Churchill

Glasgow Herald

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.

photos © Adrian Welch

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.

Architecture in Strathclyde

Glasgow School of Art – design by architect Rennie Mackintosh

photo © Adrian Welch

Historic Glasgow: best Glasgow buildings of the past

Rennie Mackintosh – architect of the Herald building

Glasgow walking tours

Herald Building – former home of Glasgow Herald and the Evening Times. The refurbishment of the nine-storey property was undertaken by FM Developments.

European Heritage Awards

building image © Adrian Welch
The Lighthouse and St Andrew’s in the Square church building in Glasgow were the only sites in Scotland to be named as buildings of outstanding historic importance by Europa Nostra, an organisation of more than 200 non-governmental heritage groups.