Baird's beacon

of its kind in Europe -- ''perhaps in the world'' -- were revealed last

week after a limited architectural competition won by Andrew Merrylees

and Allan Murray.

Too often competition plans stay on ice for years or for ever but

Strathclyde University engaged a project director with a background in

fund raising before this competition was launched and Roger Moon

believes the #3.5m needed for technological devices to equip the

building will be available from Silicon Glen and its worldwide

competitors. This leaves a similar amount needed for the building but a

fund-raising director means this is not mere pie in the sky -- though

the glowing translucent roof, subtly changing colour with temperature

may become a unique after-dark beacon.

The idea of a memorial to John Logie Baird that probes the future

rather than fixing him in a museum sprang from the university. Born in

Helensburgh, Baird created the first-ever television machine in

Hastings. But it was at the Royal Technical College, precursor of the

university, that he studied and first turned his inventive mind to light

technology.

Visions extends that technology further. Architects were asked to

include a ''Crystal Cranium'' -- a circular area at least seven metres

high for a 360 degrees multi-media show which can take visitors inside

John Logie Baird's mind. Also five ''interactive'' areas for exploring

the future of radio, TV, holography, infra-red, and fibre-optics. And so

on, including a ''black box'' to seat 70 people for a changing

presentation of the impact of television on society.

This last will provide the ''Wow'' factor, according to the writers of

the brief. Wow factors surely need a modern building to house them. That

is something which will anger pastiche worshippers but need frighten no

one else. The overall form of M & M's building is notably calm, its

smooth elliptical roof a soothing contrast to the spires, towers, and

gables all around. The assessors noted an ''elegant simplicity . . . a

truly kinetic sculpture . . . a proposal that has vision and vibrancy.''

This unanimous praise will delight the university and its partners,

Glasgow District Council, Glasgow Development Agency, the Scottish

Tourist Board, John Logie Baird Foundation, and others.

Designing for the twenty-first century next to the oldest house in

Glasgow must be daunting, yet a building is needed on this site to

complete the cathedral precinct and strengthen the west side of Castle

Street. Surprisingly the model of the project (now in the university's

McCance Building) appears to give Provand's Lordship a new prominence

rather than overwhelming it.

This is achieved by a slight change of alignment and by a graduated

stepping back of the frontage of the new building which takes its glass

walled ''light garden'' section four or five metres from the street.

Materials marry old and new -- for the walls sandstone adjacent to

Provand's Lordship, and then glass, slate for the floor, and a

translucent Teflon material for the roof that sails over the light

garden.

Essentially the building is in two parts. The copper-clad steel

crystal cranium is central to the technological area with galleries

around on three levels, and the northern half is a full-height glazed

meeting place. One could stand to the rear of this light garden section

and look right through to the cathedral, the structure of the new

excluding the bulky buildings on either side of Cathedral Square.

But we have been here before. Six years ago the public and apparently

the planning committee and its officers, were seduced by a dreamy

perspective drawing of the shell of what has become St Mungo's and once

it was built were shocked by the way its size and prominence diminishes

the cathedral. So what about height?

Provand's Lordship is 11.5 metres to ridge line, just over 13 metres

to its chimney tops. The bit of the new building perceived from Castle

Street adjacent to Provand's Lordship is also 11 metres high but this

rises to 17 metres to eaves over the greater part of the building, with

the apex of the elliptical roof 18.2 metres.

Allan Murray, who was largely responsible for the design, assures me

he has checked the scene through a modelscope 20 times over and, because

of the new alignment and the graduated stepping beside the old house,

the ultimate difference in height will not be perceived from the street.

I am inclined to believe someone who can produce such a sensitive

satisfying design. As proposed, the building is beautifully proportioned

and it would be a pity to alter it. But this time round let's hope the

planners have a modelscope at hand.