From the white heat of Victorian industrial and economic activity and the resultant flurry of building activity, churches, charitable institutions, townhouses and country villas, the story moves through the more difficult years for the architectural profession, not found in many company histories. Architecture and design are once again flourishing and here is the story of Charles Rennie Mackintosh who was the third partner of John Honeyman and Keppie, the architectural practice now called Keppie Design. It celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2004 and in this volume its managing director David Stark explores the development of the practice and its legacy of buildings across the West of Scotland and beyond, including those from the influential Mackintosh years. We learn about Victorian industrialists and their wealth and lifestyles, Kate Cranston and her famous tea rooms, and of lesser known but significant architectural names such as John Keppie and Graham Henderson. There are superb Mackintosh sketches such as for the Liverpool Cathedral 1903, drawings for shops, banks and tea rooms as published in the 1904 edition of Academy Architecture, and proposals and entries into competitions Mackintosh entered such as one obtaining Alexander Thompson Scholarship which allowed him to tour Italy from March through July 1891. As a group, the Immortals did not last long. Francis Newbery realised that Mackintosh, MacNair and two MacDonald sisters had compatible ideas, and by about 1895 they had become known as 'The Four'. This also led to the end of the romance that Mackintosh had with Jessie Keppie. With a brilliant Lineage diagram, packed with colour photos and detailing families like the Paisleys and Copes, Victorian schools, newspaper buildings, the Glasgow School of Art and the Mackintosh legacy, hospitals, further education, and selected projects since 1995. 328 very large very well illustrated pages with decorated endpapers.
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