July 17 2025
Moves to build a contentious student housing development which threatened to cast a pall over the renowned Mackintosh Building in Glasgow have been paused after the Scottish Government elected to call in the case for review
A reporter will now be appointed to look again at the decision to grant planning approval for the nine-storey block, with their recommendations put before ministers for a final decision on whether to overrule Glasgow City Council or rubberstamp the approval.
The move grants a reprieve for the A-listed landmark after the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society and others warned that the development by Vita Group and Haus Architects placed the Mackintosh Building at ‘significant risk’.
Welcoming the decision to call in the development architect and GSA alumnus Alan Dunlop told Urban Realm: “A proper hearing and review is required which would give Glasgow School of Art and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) an opportunity to present their objections. It was clear from discussion at the planning committee that the impetus was to just have ‘something built’. This was crass and inappropriate given the international importance of Mackintosh’s school of art and the proposal’s deleterious impact upon it.”
Objections from HES and others focused on the loss of key views and light arising from the replacement of the former O2 ABC venue on Sauchiehall Street with a much larger structure that would encroach upon the south facade of Mackintosh’s masterpiece.