Scottish icon in the making as images of new museum are released

STRIKING new images of what is set to become one of Scotland's most iconic buildings have been released.

The £60 million Riverside Museum on the banks of the Clyde will be the new home of Glasgow's Museum of Transport, currently based at Kelvinhall.

The innovative single-span design has been created by Zaha Hadid, the Baghdad-born architect, who was shortlisted for last year's prestigious architecture Stirling Prize.

Over the coming months, a team of architects, designers and the main contractor will study the plans for the museum, which is scheduled to open at Glasgow Harbour in 2009. Planning permission will be sought in the spring.

Lawrence Fitzgerald, project leader, said: "We will have to work through all the details with the architects and engineers and we hope work will start on site in the summer. At the moment, we hope to be open to the public in spring 2009, but that will form part of the discussions because there are a number of variables to be considered."

Kelvingrove Art Gallery re-opened after a three-year closure to allow a massive refurbishment and revamp.

However, Glasgow City Council chiefs hope there will only be a six-month gap between the Transport Museum closing and the Riverside Museum opening because the new facility is being constructed on a different site.

The existing museum has about 1,300 exhibits, but the dramatic new Riverside Museum will be able to display double that number.

The largest exhibit is likely to be a 100-tonne locomotive which the project team hopes to acquire from South Africa. The smallest will be a bus ticket.

Visitors quizzed on their favourite part of the existing museum voted for the 1930s street scene. As a result, the original street will return and two more will be introduced into the new building, spanning 1900 to 1980. The new set-ups will allow visitors to walk into the shops lining the three streets and examine the contents.

But one of the most dramatic new attractions will be the Tall Ship SV Glenlee which will be berthed on the river beside the museum. The ship, built in 1899, is only one of five remaining Clyde-built ships still afloat in the world.

The museum cafe will have an outside area where visitors can enjoy the view of the Glenlee and the river. Mr Fitzgerald added: "This is a really exciting time for Glasgow and it is great that we have an architect of the standard of Zaha Hadid. The building is already attracting international interest because this is her first major building in Britain, so it is a real coup for Glasgow."

John Lynch, city council culture and leisure executive committee spokesman, said the Transport Museum had been a popular attraction since it opened its doors in the 1960s.

"It has already been based in two different locations - at the Old Tramway and now just off Kelvinhall - so this is an opportunity for the collection to move into a custom-built facility. From an architecture point of view, it will be very much a landmark."

The Transport Museum is Scotland's third most popular free tourist attraction and currently attracts around 400,000 visitors a year.

CONTROVERSIAL AND CUTTING-EDGE ARCHITECT

ZAHA Hadid, CBE, is known for her radical - and controversial - deconstructive designs.

In 2004 she was the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize - the profession's equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

Born in Baghdad in 1950, she graduated with a degree in mathematics from the American University in Beirut before enrolling at the Architectural Association in London.

Hadid is now fêted as one of architecture's most cutting-edge figures, bringing a new approach to design, displaying a resistance to right angles.

Her most recent projects include Maggie's Centre in Fife and the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany, although her designs have been described by critics as "brilliant, but unbuildable".

A number of her international prize-winning designs were never built, including her visions for the Cardiff Bay Opera House in 1994 and the Peak Club in Hong Kong in 1983.