The Exhibition offered a chance to showcase and boost the economy of Scotland and celebrate Empire trade and developments, recovering from the depression of the 1930s.

The idea of the exhibition came from the Scottish Development Council, created in the 1930s under the aegis of its founder chairman, Sir James Lithgow, industrialist and Britain`s foremost shipbuilder.

Cecil Weir, convenor of the Council`s general purposes committee, suggested at Lithgow's behest and gave shape to the idea.

After meeting government bodies, industries, and manufacturers in a few months, the Empire Exhibition project was officially launched in October 1936 in the Merchants House, Glasgow.

Nearby, Ibrox Park stadium, home of Rangers F.C., was made available as the venue for the Exhibition`s programme of sporting events and competitions.

[3][6] Another Council initiative of the time was the creation of the Scottish Industrial Estates corporation chaired by Sir Steven Bilsland, bread manufacturer and chairman of the Union Bank of Scotland.

He was appointed the first Civil Defence Commissioner for Western Scotland, receiving his sealed orders at the Exhibition on 25 September 1938, five days before Chamberlain arrived back from Munich.

Of his many initiatives here and jointly with his American counterpart, Weir introduced the mass production of penicillin, essential to the survival of Allied service personnel; industrial-scale production of the pressed-steel jerrican for the Allies, based on the Nazi invention, the war being global and fast moving in contrast to trench-warfare; and ahead of peacetime conceived the scheme of Demobilisation Clothing for 9 million service men and women, and with no distinction for rank.

[10] The formation of the Council was announced in the House of Commons by Hugh Dalton, president of the Board of Trade, in December 1944, with Design Centres opening in the post-war years in major conurbations.

With a staff of some 7,000, Sir Cecil Weir had absolute power over the population, industries, and commerce in what would become West Germany with a new capita, Bonn, where he had completed his schooling.

He devised the master plan with the consulting engineers Crouch & Hogg of Glasgow and determined that the building style would be Art Deco.

Those chosen were: Margaret Brodie,[12] Jack Coia,[13] Esme Gordon,[14] Alistair MacDonald,[15] Thomas W Marwick,[16] Mervyn Noad,[17] Launcelot Ross,[18] Basil Spence,[19] Dr Colin Sinclair,[20] and James Taylor Thomson.

[25][26] Sir Cecil Weir records, "Lord Inverclyde, chairman of Cunard, toured round the playgrounds and holiday resorts of Britain in search of what we wanted, the masses of restaurants to suit every purse, the bandstands, the fashion shows in the special theatre in the Women of Empire Pavilion designed by Margaret Brodie, and the innumerable events which took place in the Ibrox Park Stadium, including a week of a Services Tournament, similar to the Royal Military, giving a character to this Exhibition which was comprehensive and unique".

Above-ground construction started in July 1937 when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth unveiled the granite Commemoration Stone on the hill, where it remains today.

Construction was of steel and timber, throughout clad in four-foot-square asbestos panels, the idea being drawn from Mendelsohn and Chermayeff's Bexhill Pavilion built in 1935, for which Tait had been the assessor.

The lovely pavilions in Dominion and Colonial Avenues in Empire Court, separated by a beautiful ornamental lake and fountains with the great Engineering Hall at one end and the Industrial Halls at the other, flanked by innumerable pavilions erected by great industrial companies, newspapers, and public services grouped below the terrace approach to the Garden Club[30] and the Tower gave the plan a grace and variety which took full advantage of the beauty of the natural features with which the site abounded.

"[6] Nineteen restaurants and numerous milk and snack bars met the appetites of visitors from Britain and overseas, who, for transport around the vast site, had use of fifty Lister passenger autotrucks quietly traversing the roadways on a one-way route, linking pavilions and passing the well-used bandstands.

The Amusement Park,[31] with its sub-franchise of the Big Ride (or Mountain Railway), was highly successful with its 28 large devices and 105 side-shows and games.

The Palace of Engineering was dismantled in 1940, transported to Scottish Aviation at Prestwick and re-erected, dramatically increasing the company's factory floor space.

[37][38] The Empire News Theatre, which showed films and newsreels, with a small stage for live performance, was re-erected in Lochgilphead in 1939 as a cinema.

The Palace of Arts, Bellahouston Sports Centre, and the dry ski and snowboard slopes are established fitness and recreation centers.