BOV project to develop the House of the Four Winds gets planning approval

Work will be able to start soon on the new Bank of Valletta offices in Valletta after MEPA's board on Thursday approved the application for the site currently occupied by the House of Four Winds.

The bank commissioned architects Demicoli and Associates to come up with designs for the site of the House of the Four Windes which occupies an area which was originally used for  military purposes in the 1800s, but which since then has been considerably expanded, with nothing remaining of the small original building.

"Over the past two years, the architects refined the designs repeatedly to ensure that the new Bank of Valletta building that will house the chairman's office and the office of the company secretary would do justice to this beautiful location on the listed bastions of St Michael. The final designs took into account the suggestions made by NGOs Flimkien Ghall-Ambjent Ahjar and Din l-Art Helwa, who were consulted and contributed extensively during the design process," the bank said.

The result was described by the MEPA directorate as a "significant improvement over the existing situation" - an opinion reflected by many other board members.

The most significant aspect of the new design is that is it being moved away from the bastion wall - by at least 3m - freeing up 44m of fortifications which had previously been buried beneath the building. The bank will also reinstate the part of the bastion wall which had been removed to make way for a balcony.

"This will greatly improve the view of the bastion from Great Siege Road, as the present building was the only one actually built onto the fortifications along Marsamxett. The new design also uses different heights for the different wings to ensure that it blends in better against the considerably higher buildings behind it," the bank said.

The bank also decided to allocate part of the site to a piazza at the end of Windmill Street, which will have as its main feature the remains of the column dedicated former Governor Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby, which had been destroyed when it was struck by lightning. The bank has offered to restore the remains of the column. The wall which separates the site from Hastings Garden will also be removed, opening up the views.

"The bank is very proud to be associated with a project which will result in such an enhancement of the capital city after which it is named," BOV CEO Charles Borg said.

The site was granted to the Bank by the government after BOV agreed to relinquish the building in South Street, adjacent to the former Valletta police station, which used to house the Bank of Valletta International premises. The South Street site is part of the City Gate project.