Glasgow, Church Street, University Of Glasgow Department Of Virology

Building Notes

In June 1957 Basil Spence and Partners were commissioned to design the Institute of Virology for the University of Glasgow. The building, situated on Church Street adjacent to the Western Infirmary, was designed during 1958 and the construction was completed by 1962. The new building was to house the first Virology department in the UK, and contained laboratories, research rooms, staff rooms and a library. The four-storey concrete structure is clad in glass mosaic panels and green slate slabs.

In 1958 the practice was also commissioned to design the Institute of Genetics on an adjacent site, but construction work did not begin until 1962. The resulting building, completed in 1966, was a seven-storey structure built with reinforced concrete and clad in glass mosaic like the Institute of Virology.

Archive Details and Summary

The Sir Basil Spence Archive contains 40 drawings, one photograph, and one folder of correspondence, relating to the Institute of Virology and the Institute of Genetics. The drawings for the Institute of Virology include site and floor plans, sections, elevations and details of room layout.

The drawings for the Institute of Genetics date from 1958 and show two alternative schemes, one for a 10-storey tower and the other for a 12-storey tower. The construction work on this site did not begin until 1962 and the building that was finally constructed was reduced in size and differs significantly from the designs shown in these early drawings.

Correspondence between the architects, the University and the Western Infirmary show that a tower block was considered to be the best use of limited ground space. A letter, dated 10 February 1960, from Professor Pootecorvo of the Department of Genetics to the University, clearly states the department's disapproval of having to share a larger building with other departments, and so the seven-storey building could be seen as a compromise between the Pootecorvo and the University.

The Spence, Glover and Ferguson Collection, also held by RCAHMS, contains six photographs of the Institute of Virology.

This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.