 At the end of the course Burnet toured France and Italy, returning to Glasgow at the end of 1876, when he assisted his father on completing the facade of the Union Bank of Scotland building in Ingram Street.In 1878 Burnet won the competition to build the Fine Art Institute in Glasgow, his first truly independent work.The brief was to combine 'Greek with modern French Renaissance', Greek Revival architecture still being in vogue in Glasgow at the time.