The art school previously insisted it was committed to a faithful reinstatement of the building.

Glasgow School of Art's Mackintosh Building was wrecked by two fires in 2014 and 2018 Glasgow School of Art says it cannot fully restore the city's iconic Mackintosh Building to its former state without additional financial support. The art school previously insisted it was committed to a faithful reinstatement of the building, which was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh but wrecked by two fires in 2014 and 2018. However it now says "financial clarity", provided by an insurance settlement regarding the 2018 blaze, has shown it "cannot take forward the faithful reinstatement on its own." Instead it suggests the building has potential to be an anchor for a "creative and cultural production innovation district". The GSA's new report into restoration plans says several factors - including construction inflation, market volatility and economic pressure - have made the reinstatement of the Mackintosh far more expensive than predicted in a previous report, published in 2021. The report states fully restoring the Mackintosh is therefore "dependent on external funding sources that are uncertain", and cites a "significant funding gap" needing to be resolved. Ann Priest, the chair of the school's board of governors, told BBC Scotland News: "What we are doing is what is affordable to us.