The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
It is understood a bid led by John McAslan + Partners was originally top scorer in the contest to oversee the rebuilding of the 113-year-old school, which burned down five years ago.
But after the bids were recalculated, Hawkins\Brown is understood to have been awarded the highest score. The entire procurement was scrapped shortly afterwards.
The exact marks awarded to each team remain unknown. Documents released through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the AJ are heavily redacted to conceal both the calculations and the finalists’ names.
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But the FOI shows that, during the initial 10-day standstill period in November 2022, one of the four shortlisted practices, believed to be Hawkins\Brown, contacted Glasgow School of Art (GSA) to question how its bid had been scored.
In an email released by the FOI, in which the parties’ names were blocked out, the unsuccessful team asked: ‘We were disappointed to have lost because we put a huge amount of work into our bid and felt that [we] were uniquely placed to restore this fine building.
‘Our firm has done bids for many years, but we have never lost on such a narrow margin.’
The GSA wrote back on 25 November, attempting to explain how the marks were calculated and setting out why the team had come second once the combined quality scores and pricing section had been added.
But five days later, an internal GSA email confirmed errors had been found with the scoring process and that 'an issue [had] arisen with the outcome of the Architect Led Team tender evaluation'.
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It reads: 'This has resulted in the wrong outcome being announced to bidders.'
The GSA then contacted all the shortlisted practices to clarify that it had withdrawn its initial notification letter, which said John McAslan + Partners had topped the scoring. Its message reads: '[Errors identified within the scoring matrix have] resulted in inaccurate outturn positions on both the technical and price evaluation.'
The school asked an external auditor to undertake an independent review of the tender evaluation process.
It was revealed that 'the original scoring matrix failed to calculate the final quality score in proportion to the 100 per cent awarded to the highest achieved quality score' while the initial price scoring had, in error, been 'arrived at by expressing the lowest bid as a proportion of [the teams'] tendered price'.
On recalculating the bids, a different team received the highest score. The AJ understands this was Hawkins\Brown.
However, during the new standstill period – prompted by the fresh award letter – the school received a pre-action letter from one of the other bidders challenging the outcome.
As a result, the GSA decided to close the procurement process and confirmed to the teams that no award had been made.
In documents also released under FOI, the GSA said it wanted to bring on board an external procurement consultant to advise on the new process and to support them 'practically and procedurally in delivering a demonstrably open, fair and compliant process'.
Speaking after the year-long procurement process was abandoned in March, RIAS chief executive Tamsie Thomson, said: 'Ask any of our members and they will tell you that design procurement in Scotland is broken, and the latest sad twist in the ongoing saga of the Mackintosh Building Project is symptomatic of a system that is in deep trouble.
'Whether it’s projects falling apart because of technical errors or a lack of weight being given to design quality within the wider procurement system, it’s clear that things need to change.'
The procurement process was launched in March last year, setting out to select a team to deliver a ‘faithful reinstatement’ of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed 1909 architectural masterpiece’.
The landmark Charles Rennie Mackintosh building was gutted on 15 June 2018 while undergoing a £35 million restoration programme following an earlier fire in 2014.
After a ‘complex and resource-intensive investigation’, which took the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service more than three and a half years to complete, firefighters admitted they still didn’t know how the fire started.
In October 2021, the Glasgow School of Art ruled out constructing a new building to replace the fire-ravaged structure and instead opted for a ‘faithful reinstatement’ of the architectural masterpiece.
John McAslan + Partners and Hawkins\Brown were contacted for comment.
Statement from The Glasgow School of Art – Mackintosh Building Procurement Exercise:
The procurement exercise was closed and no appointment was made following the identification of a technical error in the scoring matrix used. We took this decision after careful consideration and believe this was the appropriate and fair decision to take.
The decision was shared in advance with the firms who were shortlisted and we would like to again thank them for their participation in the procurement process, recognising the considerable time, effort and resource they invested in tendering for this work.
In our statement of 1 March 2023, we were clear that we would review the process and this will inform how we approach the procurement going forward.
We are committed to bringing on board a third party to undertake the review and to work with us on the next procurement process, applying the insights on the original process which have been shared with us following the announcement and in our discussions with the shortlisted firms and taking on board the lessons learned from the review.
Source:Copyright: Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS)
Picture of the remains of the GSA/Mackintosh buidling taken from the SFRS fire investigation report (January 2022)
-any wonder why it is still a ruin?
We have entered a new era where no decisions can be made (and no buildings built) because decision-makers are so terrified of being seen to do it wrong.
If you can’t all clearly tell who’s is the ‘best’ bid at a glance, you are doing it wrong.
The first criterion is who is leading the team, and how much competence do they show.
If you are doing it on fee calculations as anything more than a tiny side-issue, u izza fule.
As sad as the situation is, at least Hawkins Brown shouldn’t be getting their hands on this genuinely iconic building
fingers crossed
The Mackintosh Glasgow School of Art is more than iconic; the “faithful reinstatement” of the building is the most important project in Scotland since the creation of the parliament.
The architectural world is watching. Consequently, we need an architect of real significance and renown to be appointed to lead and a procurement process to facilitate that and make it happen