Thumbs-down to Valletta Marsamxett hotel from heritage watchdog

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage said a proposed Marsamxett harbour hotel next to a scheduled 16th century building, once believed to have been inhabited by artist Mattia Preti, would be “unacceptable and totally objectionable”.

The SCH said GP Borg’s proposal for the hotel, with its long and narrow glass apertures, was objectionable in design, volume and massing.

GP Borg is one of the island’s main suppliers of ready-mix concrete. The dilapidated building opposite Valletta’s Peacock Gardens, overlooks the Marsamxett harbour. GP Borg wants to develop the house to build a 29-room, 5-star, ‘superior boutique hotel’. The  which is earmarked for demolition to be replaced by a 29-room “5-star superior boutique hotel”.

The hotel will alsohave three basement levels, and five storeys housing a cafe, wine bar, conference area, restaurant and spa. Its architec is Mariello Spiteri, a planning consultant who previously served on a PA decision-making board.

The SCH is also objecting to the “excessive amount of excavation works, within an area that is archaeologically sensitive”, and ruled out any rock-cutting in this area. Heritage NGO Din l-Art Ħelwa has warned the excavation for three basement floors would cause irreparable damage to the nearby Preti Palazzo, a Grade 2-listed building.

Over 100 objections were presented against this development. In one of these objections, architect Anton Valentino referred to the negative social impact of the proposed building on the quality of life of residents in Sqaq it-Teatru l-Antik. “What presently is a two-storey façade on this lane is proposed to become a four-storey façade plus receded floor. Real people live on this lane, with a right to natural light and ventilation.”

He also described the idea of building over the scheduled 16th-century building as “deplorable”. “Such an act would destroy forever the notion that this was a house, a house inhabited by Mattia Preti, a two-storey house with its own roof. It would now become a mere appendage to a commercial building.”

And while acknowledging that reactions to design proposals are often subjective, Valentino lamented the absence of any attempt to relate to the scale of the city’s architecture, describing the fenestration pattern as “more appropriate to giraffes rather than humans”, and the proportions for the façade as “alien to the stonework pattern in Valletta.”

In 2011, the Valletta local council filed an application to turn the palazzo into a hotel and connect it to the water polo pitch facilities just below the bastions. The application was later withdrawn after facing criticism for the contemporary design presented in plans for the new building.

In 2016, the Planning Authority refused a permit for a five-storey terraced house on the site, after strong objections by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, which shot down the “aesthetically unacceptable and incompatible” design for the World Heritage Site’s streetscape. Moreover, the increase in height would have created “a high and unsightly blank wall” directly over an adjacent scheduled property.

But following an appeal to the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal, a permit was issued in 2020 for the construction of a terraced house of three floors and a receded floor.

In the new hotel application, the five-storey build will be as high as that first proposed in 2016, with the difference that additional storeys in a contemporary design are also being proposed on the adjacent older building.

The PA’s internal advisory panel on design issues has asked for 3D renders from different views to be in a better position to assess the project before pronouncing itself.