The dark colour chosen for a controversial five-storey development engulfing a late 19th-century townhouse façade in St Julian’s has rendered the eyesore even more conspicuous, once again angering critics.

The latest touches to the building, done recently, have been blasted as the continued “farce of ‘preserving’ iconic heritage buildings”.

Din l-Art Ħelwa executive president Alex Torpiano charged: “You do not need to be an architectural critic to conclude that this façade is a mess and will remain, for years to come, a monument to the absolutely farcical policies adopted by the so-called Planning Authority.”

Torpiano had been vociferous about the development in 2020, when it was propelled into the limelight after a picture was posted on the Ugly Malta Facebook page, showing a block of apartments being built around the old townhouse.

Words like “barbarism”, “vandalism”, “grotesque” and “disgusting” accompanied the picture.

The update has now been accompanied by the comment: “When you thought it was impossible, this keeps getting worse.”

The two façades had been dismembered so that half of what was previously a symmetrical frontage has been displaced forward, emphasising what Torpiano described as a “Cinecittà cardboard screen”.

Now, “the so-called modern building, sprouting incongruously from the top, has been painted black,” the dean of the Faculty for the Built Environment at the University of Malta noted in horror.

“In appropriate conformity with the greed that underpins our planning and development decisions, it has also grown a fake classical arcaded base – in yet another style – to create more rentable space.”

Noting the detail of the stonework on the left of the façade, he said it was “in expectation of a continuation of the wall” and he had no doubt the same would be done on the other side.

“Perhaps it will look better then?”

St Julian’s mayor, Albert Buttigieg described the project as the “uglification of St Julian’s”.

He also put the blame on the PA – “an irresponsible, Frankenstein entity that enables such hideous development and the uglification of our community; a monster that is eating us up and must be stopped”.

Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar noted that, some years ago, design and aesthetics were declared a PA priority.

“Yet, we are still going from bad to worse,” it said.

Besides the ruin of an outstanding heritage building, the developers have “added salt to the wound” with a façade and finish totally unsympathetic to the building below, FAA added.

The PA seemed to have completely forgotten that its regulatory role includes colour schemes for which they have official guidelines, FAA pointed out.

“This is not a frivolous matter but also impacts Malta’s economy: what will it have to offer tourists if developers, aided and abetted by the PA, persist in uglifying our prime urban landscapes in this way?”

In 2020, the History of Art and Fine Arts Students’ Association had also lambasted the development.

The five-storey building now “engulfs the façade with great dissonance”, it said.

“While the 19th-century architecture is composed of natural stone, the new development opposes this aesthetic with the choice of grey and dark colours,” the association said.

Current architectural choices show the priority is now commercial proposes, it added.

The association said it was the responsibility of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage “to stop this ripple effect”.

After the permit was granted, the PA had said the development was part of a “comprehensive design scheme” which included the adjacent townhouse.

The architect, Annamaria Attard Montalto, had justified the contentious project, saying the application was assessed and approved by all stakeholders and that works had proceeded in accordance with the permit conditions and approved restoration method statement.