The Herald

Wearing one of those urbanely shapeless summer jackets which always look as if recycled from a pile of old grey dusters, Stuart MacDonald appears organically at one with the post-industrial chic of the Lighthouse. Until 1980, this Charles Rennie Mackintosh masterpiece was home to The Glasgow Herald for 112 years; a long-neglected gem beset by the unruly clang and clutter of the newspaper trade. Today its corner tower – the inspiration for the Lighthouse name – still stands as an architectural beacon marrying Business Baronial to the beginnings of the Glasgow Style. But now, defying the dingy recess of Mitchell Lane, the Lighthouse shines as Scotland's national centre for architecture and design, illuminating creative ways forward for manufacturing, and focusing the public's eye on the merits of artistic innovation. "We welcome 200,000 visitors a year here, which is the most for a centre of this kind anywhere in the world," says MacDonald, who has been the Lighthouse's director for six years.