SUPPORT is growing for Glasgow to erect a statue to Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

SUPPORT is growing for Glasgow to erect a statue to Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Top sculptor Andy Scott says it is time the city honoured the world-famous architect and designer.

Glasgow City Council leader Steven Purcell said a statue was "long overdue."

He added: "Mackintosh was a pioneer in modern architecture.

"His iconic designs and monumental achievements, from Glasgow School of Art to Scotland Street School, helped put our great city on the world map.

"He is inextricably linked to Glasgow in the same way that Antonio Gaudi is with Barcelona.

"It is fitting that a contemporary Glasgow artist now wants to commemorate this towering figure in world architecture with a long overdue and much-deserved statue."

Seona Reid, director of the Mackintosh-designed Glasgow School of Art, said it was "more than happy to support any call to celebrate the genius of Mackintosh.

"Of course, the most appropriate recognition of his work comes, first and foremost, from an appreciation of his great buildings, but acknowledgment in the form of public art is also welcome."

David Stark, a director of architectural firm Keppie, where Mackintosh once worked, said: "The entrance to Mitchell Lane would be a good place for a statue, to let you know that the Lighthouse building is nearby."

Mr Scott's suggested locations for the statue include George Square, or Buchanan Street near the Lighthouse, which Mackintosh designed in 1895 to house the Glasgow Herald newspaper.

He added: "When you consider his legacy to the city, you think that something should be done."

Gary Nisbet, an expert in Glasgow's sculpture and architecture, pointed out that Glasgow already had a stone monument to Mackintosh -- in Townhead, where the architect was born in 1868.

Part of a GHA community artwork project, it was designed by local young people and was unveiled in February 2008.

Mr Nisbet said: "It's a large, beautiful memorial in a landscaped area, as substantial as you want a memorial to be. For me, one of the most important things is that it's a community memorial."

Professor Pamela Robertson, of the Mackintosh Heritage Group, said they had been "looking at delivering a piece of public art to celebrate his achievements.

"It wouldn't be a memorial sculpture in terms of a figurative piece but something that we would see as a more creative response to him."

The group was focusing on its own plan and had no observations to make on Mr Scott's idea, Prof Robertson added.