Tag Archives: Scotland

Don’t trifle with this building

Posted on January 22, 2021 by David Brussat

Opened in 1823 to a design by Thomas Hamilton, Edinburgh’s Old Royal High School has a stern and foreboding look. But surely a grin can be detected among its colonnades: It has recently dodged the bullet of redevelopment as an … Continue reading →

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Bulldoze or rebuild Mack?

Posted on June 22, 2018 by David Brussat

A horrific second fire in four years at Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, completed in 1909, has elicited predictably cockamamie calls to demolish rather than to again rebuild the Scotsman’s masterpiece. Its restoration had been 80 percent complete … Continue reading →

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Devastation in Glasgow

Posted on June 19, 2018 by David Brussat

Shattering news from Scotland, where architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece, the Glasgow School of Art, completed in 1909, has just suffered a catastrophic fire, just as its restoration after a catastrophic fire in 2014 was nearing its final stages. No! … Continue reading →

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Q. of Scots takes Edinburgh

Posted on January 17, 2018 by David Brussat

Here is Margaret, Queen of Scots, entering Edinburgh in 1503, riding with new husband James of Scotland, as seen through the lens of historical novelist Philippa Gregory in her Three Sisters, Three Queens (2016): The day of our entry into … Continue reading →

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Bobby Burns’ Edinburgh

Posted on January 28, 2017 by David Brussat

Aside from a quick nip past Scotland’s poor modernist parliament building, this video of Edinburgh focuses on the delights of the architecture of the Athens of the North. The narrator’s gentle brogue lifts the heart, even becomes a sort of … Continue reading →

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Macintosh library reveals all

Posted on June 7, 2016 by David Brussat

Today is Charles Rennie Macintosh’s birthday, the 148th anniversary of his birth in 1868. Hats off to Joel Pidel and Paul Ranogajec for memorializing the event with the picture above. Paul also linked to an article in Archinect, “The architects … Continue reading →

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Save Peter Pan’s birthplace

Posted on April 7, 2016 by David Brussat

Moat Brae survives. Moat Brae is the 1823 house and garden in Dumfries, Scotland, where J.M. Barrie, age 8 in 1868 and playing at pirates, conceived Neverland, the land of eternal childhood. That’s the good news. Moat Brae lives – … Continue reading →

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Is that moss on the roof?

Posted on January 18, 2016 by David Brussat

Above is an aerial photo of what some consider Scotland’s most significant modernist building. Is that moss on the roof? What’s left after water seeped (or gushed) in, sparking problems that led to the almost obligatory debate between owner and … Continue reading →

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Latest on Macintosh rebuild

Posted on March 31, 2015 by David Brussat

An experienced Glasgow firm, Page/Park, has been chosen in a competition to restore and renovate the burned masterpiece of Scotland’s great architect Charles Rennie Macintosh – the Glasgow School of Art and its Macintosh Library. The Guardian’s story runs under … Continue reading →

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Column: Scotland back to its roots or nae

Posted on September 18, 2014 by David Brussat

Scottish voters decide today whether Scotland will be independent or continue its 307-year relationship with Great Britain. Whatever it decides – and the last polls were too close to call – its cultural hegemony over its own appearance will remain … Continue reading →

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