Beresford Building Print

The Brief

I have participated in the last 2 Architecture meets Art events run by Design Pop Up and hosted with Collective Architecture.

These events bring together architects and artists who donate a piece of work to be auctioned off, with the proceeds going towards a project conserving Scotland’s natural heritage. This year, the project that won nominations is the Bon Accord Baths in Aberdeen. The event is a celebration of Scotland’s architectural and artistic heritage, and I am excited to be a part of it. 

This year’s art work’s theme was to celebrate Scotland’s Art Deco era to celebrate buildings constructed in the 1920s & 30s. I have been keen on creating work using the Beresford building on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow. When the theme was announced, it was a good idea to get out and photograph the building.

How I Shot It

I chose to go out on a bright, sunny day. I checked the sun path to establish when the front facade of the building would have strong direct sunlight on it. Thankfully, the forecast was accurate on the day I went out to photograph the building. I looked at the front elevation with my back to the sunlight light along Elmbank Street. I liked how the surrounding tenements started to disappear into shadows, pulling my focus entirely on the building. I walked around getting closer to the street level of the building and round to the side streets. 

When creating these graphic collages, I don’t always know what building elements will work best when I start pulling things together, so I like to shoot around the building as much as possible. When I got to a point where I could get the two elevations of the building, I realised this worked well when making the Beresford building look like a single object. 

 

How I Created The Artwork

My artistic process began with a black-and-white image of the building. I then made a conscious decision to reintroduce the distinctive red colour into the artwork as graphic elements. I knew I wanted a red theme, so I carefully selected tones of pink and coral, and the subtle use of navy, to form my colour palette.

The graphic elements I used were informed by the shapes of the building as well as some architectural drawing elements.

A thick base was something we did with architectural drawings and I wanted it to look like a section line through the ground and mimic how I used to do this when drawing sections or elevations. This then started to frame the building at the bottom. I tested a large green block but decided it was too heavy and I didn’t want to have a contrasting base colour to the red theme. The deep navy-coloured line added depth without being too heavy and toned well with black, white, and red.

My next step was to play around with the iconic red lines of the Beresford Building. These lines are a distinctive feature of the building’s Art Deco design, and I wanted to see how they could compositionally add to the piece. I extended them vertically to create a portrait orientation to the artwork, enhancing the building’s unique aesthetic in the final piece. 

I wanted to frame the building with a sky where the coral background came in. I liked that it still contrasted the red lines but was still a warm red tone. At this point, I also added the grids. These were taken from graph paper, which I would use to sketch building layouts. They also acknowledge the grid of Glasgow’s streets. I used the strong sunlight along the street grid to light the front facade and let the side tenement buildings fall into the shadows. 

My final thought was to add a contrasting object to the piece. I went to my library of images to find the red and pink flowers and added them to the top of the building. I have done this before, adding natural foliage to buildings for my Februllage projects. These projects involve incorporating natural elements into collage images, and I like the effect it can have on the overall composition. 

The images that made up this piece are in the gallery below.

An A3 fine art print will be available for auction at the Architecture meets Art event on the 20th of February 2025 at Collective Architecture’s offices.