M055 Competition design for Glasgow Art Galleries (dome)

John Honeyman & Keppie produced three designs for the competition for a new art gallery and museum building in Kelvingrove Park. One design was in a severe Ionic classical style; the second was French Renaissance-inspired, with four towers and a busy roofline; the third was also French Renaissance, with a large dome. It has previously been said that the Ionic and domed designs were submitted in the preliminary round of the competition, and that the design with towers was produced for the final round. However, contemporary reports and the competition organising committee's minutes show that all three designs were submitted in the preliminary round. The Ionic and towered designs were among the six entries short-listed, and they advanced unchanged to the final adjudication.

Authorship: This design has been attributed to John Keppie and Mackintosh working in collaboration. It appears to draw on recent work by Mackintosh and by architects they both admired. The entrances with their echoes of James Sellars may be due to Keppie while the double-transomed windows recall Mackintosh's student design for a Museum of Science and Art. The sculpted frieze was copied directly from John Burnet Senior's 1878 design for the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts galleries. 1