Graffiti on Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art is set to be removed and windows smashed by bottles repaired under new plans.
Glasgow Life, the arms-length organisation running cultural and leisure venues for the council, has submitted a proposal to refurbish the A-listed building following anti-social behaviour.
It has previously been reported how the GOMA and other buildings in Royal Exchange Square, where groups of youths have regularly gathered, have been covered in graffiti.
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Plans submitted to the council reveal the building has “suffered from a variety of graffiti attacks” while single-glazed windows on the west side are “particularly vulnerable to the anti-social behaviour”. Five panes of cracked glass are to be replaced with double glazing.
“The cause of breakages appears to be the alcohol bottles lying around the cills,” the application added. “We cannot stop members of the public from behaving in this way so we have to intervene by replacing the glazing to a better specification.”
The project, led by John Gilbert Architects, will also include repairs to the building’s stonework, reglazing of windows, replacement of entrance doors, installation of bird protection and two new access ladders to allow gutter cleaning in currently inaccessible areas.
Originally built in 1778 as a mansion for William Cunninghame, a tobacco merchant who made his fortune through the slave trade, the building was acquired by the City of Glasgow Corporation in 1949 and has been used an art gallery since 1996.
The plans stated: “We understand that as one of the most significant buildings in Glasgow and the most visited modern art gallery in Scotland, as such any change proposed will merit scrutiny.
“What we hope we’ve demonstrated is that this is a building that has been adapted over the past 248 years from a mansion house to one of Glasgow’s most important public buildings, where it has been an exchange, a library and an art gallery.
“We have sought to understand the history of the site and allow it to inform our proposals so that all interventions are in line with best conservation practice.”
They add the incorrect removal of graffiti can “cause the ink to penetrate deeply into the stone” as “can be seen on various buildings in the vicinity where powerwashing has been deployed”. The plans therefore aim to follow a “careful methodology” to “balance between removing the graffiti and ensuring stone health”.
“We note that some retention of graffiti may need to be accepted by the client where removing it will damage the stone irreparably,” the application added.
“Within academic conservation discourse, there is an acknowledgement that some graffiti can have cultural value. However, as much of the graffiti on this building contains profanity and typically is unrelated to any culturally significant events, dates or people, this is not a case for keeping it.”
As well as removing graffiti, stone repairs will include removing biological growth, such as moss and algae. The automatic pivot glazed entrance doors also need to be replaced as they “regularly fail and are no longer supported by the manufacturer”.
Cast iron railings and balustrades will be repainted, with the colour changing from blue to black as “photographs and illustrations of the building indicate that for the majority of the last century the railings were black rather than blue”.
Netting, or the possible alternative of bird wires, will be reinstalled to stop birds perching on the decorative stone and “to prevent failing stone from falling on people below”.
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