Description

W N W Ramsay, 1953-59. Scandinavian Modernist style U-plan ranges of office and teaching accommodation with single storey lecture theatre infilling the 'U'. 3- and 4-storey with basement. Polished blonde sandstone facings; bull-faced sandstone to basement and vertical features (stairtower and window bay). Recessed window architraves.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION:

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 8-bay with entrance straddling 2 bays to outer left; gently splayed concrete parapet to entrance stairs; panel of polished black granite to right of doorway; curved window to left of doorway; glazed 2-leaf doors; copper and bronze sculpture 'Knowledge & Inspiration' (Walter Pritchard, 1959) above to outer left. W ELEVATION: 3 angled windows at ground floor of S range; 11-bay W range with strip window at top floor. N ELEVATION: advanced stairtower to W range; regular fenestration to 5-bay N range. INNER ELEVATIONS: pitched-roofed lecture theatre at ground floor; regular fenestration to taller surrounding ranges; 5 projecting windows at top floor of W range.

Timber fixed-pane and casement windows. Flat roofs with parapets and overhanging coping.

INTERIOR (seen 2010): good period details to foyer and staircase; stone-faced wall to entrance hall; stair with narrow steel balusters and timber handrail; hardwood glazed and solid doors; some original signage.

Statement of Interest

Of interest as a rare intact example of a 1950s higher educational building. Typical features of the period include: the entrance with its splayed stair and parapet, curved glass and black granite panel; the angled and strip windows on the W elevation; projecting windows on the inner face of the W range; and surviving interior fixtures such as the doors and handles, thin metal stair balusters, and original signage. Fixed to the entrance elevation is the fine bronze sculpture 'Knowledge & Inspiration' by Walter Pritchard. The building makes careful use of a difficult site by maintaining the established roofline of the adjacent townhouses in the street and setting the bulkier elements of the design back into the slope behind. Whilst the design is Modernist in the Scandinavian manner, the traditional materials and subtle detailing, such as the recessed architraves, anchor the building in its historic street context.

Walter Neil Wilson Ramsay won the competition for the new Faculty of Arts building in University Gardens in 1953, but work did not begin until 1958 and the building was finally finished in 1959 at a cost of £200,000 (approximately £3m at 2010 prices). Following his success in competitions for the University of Glasgow Faculty of Arts Building and the University of Edinburgh Medical Buildings, Ramsay left his lectureship at the Glasgow School of Art to set up his own practice. He specialised in educational and church buildings.

'Knowledge & Inspiration' was commissioned from Walter Pritchard (1905-77), Head of the Department of Murals & Stained Glass at the Glasgow School of Art, a respected stained glass artist, mural painter and sculptor.

Listed as part of review of the University of Glasgow Hillhead Campus, 2010-11. The building number is derived from the University of Glasgow Main Campus Map (2007), as published on the University's website www.gla.ac.uk.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77782198

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)