Some controversial decisions attended John McAslan and Partners’ renovation of Glasgow’s Burrell Collection, as the RIBA Journal asks if the improvements outweigh the perceived drawbacks?
image: By Helen Simonsson – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22764473
…immediately upon being eligible, the Burrell Collection was Category A-listed…
The RIBA journal writes:
The Burrell Collection in Glasgow has reopened to the public following a five year renovation led by John McAslan and Partners. The building had been suffering from myriad issues that required attention, but the scheme has been called into question due to its reconfiguration, which threatened the fundamental qualities that made it one of the best modern buildings in Scotland.
An open RIBA competition was held in 1972 to design a new home for the art collection of wealthy shipping magnate Sir William Burrell and his wife Constance. Won by young Cambridge architects Barry Gasson, John Meunier and Brit Andresen, the new gallery would go on to house 9,000 objects considered by many to be the best private collection of its type in the world…
In 2013, immediately upon being eligible, the Burrell Collection was Category A-listed…
John McAslan and Partners was appointed in 2016 to lead the ‘re-invention’ of the museum as part of a five year, £68 million undertaking to refurbish and improve the Burrell.
