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Designed between 1903 and 1906, Scotland Street School was Charles Rennie Mackintosh's last major commission in Glasgow, displaying the mature architect's genius to perfection. A functioning school until 1979, the building now houses a museum of the history of Scottish education and a gallery of contemporary artworks about that history.
In the twin stair towers of Scotland Street School, Mackintosh left a void between the curved outer screen of glass and the staircase, two elements that were later united by Walter Gropius in the Fagus Factory (1911), Alfeld-an-der-Leine, Germany. At Scotland Street, the separation permits an uninterrupted upward view through each tower to the traditional carpentry supporting the conical roof. The towers and the tall ranges of windows between them have their sources in the 16th-century Falkland Palace, Fife, which Mackintosh sketched (Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow).
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