One of the last remaining traditional townhouses along a stretch of Tower Road in Sliema will be demolished to make way for more apartments even though the cultural watchdog has deemed the development “unacceptable” from a heritage point of view.

The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage had noted that the building, dating back to the interwar period, contained significant internal architectural features and spaces, such as the entrance hall, existing stone staircase and beamed ceilings, which should have been retained and incorporated within the proposed development.

But they will all go down when the two-storey building and an adjacent six-storey property are turned into an eight-floor block, with one receded floor, comprising of over 40 mostly one-bedroom units.

According to the approved PA/05223/23, works will involve the excavation of two additional basement levels and the construction of three basement parking levels, accessed via an existing garage entrance on the busy Qui-Si-Sana seafront, to accommodate 35 cars.

A photomontage of how the new development will look. Photo: Planning Authority

The SCH had objected to the planning application by developer Life Properties Ltd, confirming the cultural heritage value of various spaces within the existing property.

It had also recommended that the original façade, built in traditional style and proportions, should be preserved and integrated within the proposal and that additional floors had to be of a high-quality design, respecting the style of the façade.

The heritage watchdog had also drawn attention to the importance of the site context, given that it is located approximately 17 metres away from the historic Grade 1 Villa Drago and Garden.

But the Planning Directorate noted that the site lay outside the Urban Conservation Area and was at a “considerable distance “from the scheduled Villa Drago.

The traditional facade should have been retained, according the heritage watchdog

It also used as a pretext the fact that “the majority of the streetscape has been redeveloped with contemporary buildings, including recent constructions”, adding that the building “posed no contribution to its overall value”.

Conservation architect Edward Said weighed in on the granted development permit to destroy a building dating back to the turn of the 20th century, saying that “alas, it was a matter of time”.

He maintained that “retaining the façade and proposing a sympathetic contemporary design for additional floors above should be mandatory in this case”.

Said acknowledged that this had been done successfully, in his view, elsewhere along Tower Road.

“But with every traditional and antique Maltese building that vanishes, our streetscapes become all the poorer, for the most part being replaced by faceless, placeless, soulless greyness,” he said.