AN international search for an inspirational architect has been launched as Glasgow School of Art prepares for a £50million makeover.

The Renfrew Street school has been awarded a massive grant from the Scottish Funding Council to replace ugly buildings that sprawl across Garnethill.

Its iconic main building designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh will remain pride of place.

In the frame for top artists GLASGOW School of Art is home to 1700 students and 400 staff, attracting the cream of the art world's talent. It has an envied reputation in art, design and architecture with the Mackintosh School of Architecture, rated among the top three in the UK. Architecture graduate Gareth Hoskins is now the design director of Jaguar Cars. The school also boasts a wealth of art world superstars, including Douglas Gordon, a Partick Thistle diehard and one of two Turner prize winners to come from the Garnethill campus. Another three graduates have lifted the prestigious Beck's Futures prize including Simon Starling, who demonstrated his own building and design skills when he converted a garden shed into a boat and back again. A number of bands grew out of the art school itself, including The Boy Hairdressers led by artist Jim Lambie and Duglas T Stewart, founder of the BMX Bandits. Most of Travis studied at GSA, while graduates who reached acclaim in other fields include Robbie Coltrane, Muriel Gray, playwright John Byrne and writers Liz Lochead and Alasdair Gray.

But other buildings - including the concrete Newbery Tower, which houses aspiring silversmiths, and the Foulis, where some of Britain's leading designers are trained - face the bulldozer.

And the hunt is on for an architect to create new buildings worthy of the school's international reputation.

School director Professor Seona Reid said many of the its buildings were no longer suitable, failing to provide the light, space and facilities artists now demand.

She insisted: "A world-class school needs a world-class estate.

Building across from the Mackintosh Building is every architect's dream. We'll leave it to them to come up with a vision of what should be there."

One big change will see the demise of the famous Vic Bar as the student union will make way for the new development.

The Vic has played a key role in the city's music scene for decades.

Bands from Edwyn Collins' Orange Juice to the Scissor Sisters and Franz Ferdinand have graced the stage upstairs in the Vic which also hosted Belle and Sebastian and Bjork with her former band the Sugarcubes.

The Newbery and Foulis buildings are home to the school's renowned design centre, which trains students in jewellery, clothing and industrial design.

Graduate Pam Hogg is among the high-profile success stories and her reputation was boosted when she designed a catsuit for Kylie's Two Hearts video.

The revamp will also make some former students homeless, with the demolition of the refectory, which was taken over by them after they expanded the Where the Monkey Sleeps chain of coffee shops, which they set up after graduating.

The school hopes the prize of building opposite a landmark that thousands of tourists visit each year will lure a number of world-class entrants.

Prof Reid said: "The investment from the Scottish Funding Council for phase one of our campus redevelopment is a major vote of confidence in our plans for the future.

"With it we feel confident of continuing to produce mature, confident and enterprising graduates and contributing to Scotland's economic and cultural success."

The funding will be guaranteed once the art school submits a business plan for the redevelopment that will follow an £8.6m lottery-funded revamp of the main building.

John McClelland, chairman of the Scottish Funding Council, said: "Glasgow School of Art provides Scotland with the creative industry entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

"The project will ensure its students and staff are working in the right environment to ensure success."