M106 Competition designs for Paisley Technical School

John Honeyman & Keppie entered two designs in the Paisley Technical School competition. They were placed second and third. The design placed second was a symmetrical Scots-Renaissance-style building with striking central apsidal feature, embellished with a figurative relief frieze; elaborate 16th–17th-century style Scottish doorways on the wings; and a corbelled string-course. A perspective of it, drawn by Thomas Raffles Davison, was published in the British Architect in May 1896 and exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1897 and the Royal Scottish Academy in 1898. No images of the design which came third are known.

This was not the only competition in which John Honeyman & Keppie submitted more than one design. For the Glasgow Art Galleries competition the firm submitted three designs: one in the Ionic order; another with towers; and a third with a dome. Two designs were submitted in both the National Bank of Scotland and Liverpool Cathedral competitions.

Authorship: The authorship of the design, known only from Raffles Davison's perspective, is unclear. The combination of conventional historical and abstract details suggest that John Keppie and Mackintosh may have collaborated on it.