49


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mezzanine area was also added between the ground and first floors to accommodate offices and admin areas and boost over- all gallery space. Previous visitors to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery


could today find themselves disoriented when entering the building’s library, a mahogany-panelled room with an iron bal- cony running around it. In a Houdini-esque feat of illusion, the entire structure has been dismantled in sections and moved from its original room on the top floor of the east wing down to a room on the first floor of the west wing to be reassembled. “For our team of joiners, the library has been their life for the


past six months,” says Thornton. “Every piece had to be removed, numbered, then moved piece by piece like a giant jigsaw puzzle.” Even more impressive is the fact that the new room was


smaller than the original by approximately 0.5m in each direc- tion, so the wood had to be cut to specific dimensions to ensure a good fit. Open to the public for the first time, the reinstated library will include an area for visitors to relax and read, plus a private area for researchers to explore the photography and


print collections. With the building’s revamp now complete, curators have


begun the task of refilling its 17 new galleries with art, in prepa- ration for a November 2011 opening. There will be lots to cele- brate: gone are the dimly-lit, stuffy galleries replaced by large, light and airy spaces that interconnect to provide long uninter- rupted views through the building. In a subtle style somewhat reminiscent of London’s St Pancras


Station, the building is a mixture of exposed red brick, freshly painted pale green and grey gallery walls, light brown parquet wood floors and high exposed iron beams. A fine exam- ple of late-Victorian splendour with a modern twist.


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