Crieket
23rdJune2005, 21:02
'Rare' Gozo town houses to bite the dust
Rosanne Zammit (rzammit@timesofmalta.com)
http://www.timesofmalta.com/images/20050611_loc_03.jpgMepa has given the go-ahead for the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Republic Street, Victoria, to be demolished and replaced by garages, a commercial centre and residential units.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has unanimously approved the demolition of the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Republic Street, Victoria to be replaced by garages, a commercial centre and residential units.
The plans for the site include basement level garages, commercial outlets on the ground floor, a gym and indoor pool, seven maisonettes and commercial premises at first floor level, 33 residential apartments on three floors and five penthouses, two of them with a pool.
The development was approved against a number of conditions including that an archaeological evaluation of the site has to be carried out and monitored by the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage and the Environment Protection Department.
In a statement issued earlier this week, the national heritage trust Din l-Art Helwa had expressed its alarm at the style, scale and density planned for the project which, it said, would alter the approach to the heart of Victoria and Gozo's ancient citadel.
"This street is characteristic for its gracious 19th century Victorian town houses which are rare to Gozo and that are similar in architectural elegance to those in the surviving town houses of Sliema and Valletta," it said.
"This (massive development) is typical of the crass insensitivity to aesthetics that Mepa is allowing and which is destroying what is left of Malta's unique architectural setting."
It said the development would distort and ruin the context leading to the old village core of It-Tokk and the approach to the Citadel.
The project is being carried out by Island Development Limited.
ARAW X'QED NITILFU!! GRAZZI GHAL XI RGHIBA LI SE JIRREGALAWLNA QABDA KAXXI TAL-KONKRIT.
Rosanne Zammit (rzammit@timesofmalta.com)
http://www.timesofmalta.com/images/20050611_loc_03.jpgMepa has given the go-ahead for the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Republic Street, Victoria, to be demolished and replaced by garages, a commercial centre and residential units.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has unanimously approved the demolition of the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Republic Street, Victoria to be replaced by garages, a commercial centre and residential units.
The plans for the site include basement level garages, commercial outlets on the ground floor, a gym and indoor pool, seven maisonettes and commercial premises at first floor level, 33 residential apartments on three floors and five penthouses, two of them with a pool.
The development was approved against a number of conditions including that an archaeological evaluation of the site has to be carried out and monitored by the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage and the Environment Protection Department.
In a statement issued earlier this week, the national heritage trust Din l-Art Helwa had expressed its alarm at the style, scale and density planned for the project which, it said, would alter the approach to the heart of Victoria and Gozo's ancient citadel.
"This street is characteristic for its gracious 19th century Victorian town houses which are rare to Gozo and that are similar in architectural elegance to those in the surviving town houses of Sliema and Valletta," it said.
"This (massive development) is typical of the crass insensitivity to aesthetics that Mepa is allowing and which is destroying what is left of Malta's unique architectural setting."
It said the development would distort and ruin the context leading to the old village core of It-Tokk and the approach to the Citadel.
The project is being carried out by Island Development Limited.
ARAW X'QED NITILFU!! GRAZZI GHAL XI RGHIBA LI SE JIRREGALAWLNA QABDA KAXXI TAL-KONKRIT.