OPINION | Wednesday, 29 August 2007

Race for Valletta regeneration

George M. Mangion writes about the inner harbour area

The race for the best ideas on how to regenerate the inner harbour area is being championed by both parties .It all points to exciting months ahead, first through competing ideas by party spokesmen vying for votes. Can we risk doing something in haste.
Surely regenerating the entire inner harbour area is a monumental task. It involves urban mobility and possibly better education of some depressed areas yielding the lowest literacy rate such as Marsa and Bormla.
It is a geographic and spatial planning opportunity and this may be integrated with regeneration and redevelopment nodes in the City and around the Inner and Outer Harbour precincts. The main issue most waterfront cities share across Europe is the decline of traditional port activities, such as cargo handling and fishing, and the consolidation of business in fewer and larger ports.
Opposition spokesman has made it amply clear that after extensive consultation with interested parties , it has fashioned a tailor-made plan for upgrading the grand harbour .No prizes for guessing who earns the kudos for being the first to come up with a sustainable solution .There will be a holistic upgrade in Senglea, Cospicua and Vittoriosa.
Let us say that it is commendable that there is a race over a political commitment to give life to an area that is a natural harbour which for historical reasons has served us as the proverbial umbilical cord to other nations.
Regrettably ever since the harbour ceased to be managed by the HMS parts of it has become a victim of glaring neglect.
Party apologists now blow the trumpets announcing government ‘s inspiring vision.
They laud the government for achieving plausible strides in regenerating the economy and thus be able to afford such visionary projects. The economy and its public financial situation has made remarkable progress in the last three years. The structural deficit has been reduced drastically to below three per cent of GDP, from a high level of 10 per cent just three years ago. Unemployment is down at the lowest for 12 years and employers are complaining that they are not finding enough skilled people for the jobs that they have. Growth was generated mainly by higher net foreign demand, as exports rose while imports declined. Consumption also had a positive impact on growth, even though it expanded at a slower pace so yes the time for a visionary project is nigh.
The times of Malta reported that the master plan incorporates 20 new capital projects .There is a proposal for the removal of all heavy industrial activity from the Senglea side of French creek, where the current quay will be upgraded and converted into a new cruise liner terminal.
The Three Cities are bound to get a major boost from cruise liner tourism, which is growing year after year.
This follows naturally to other ideas connected with the improvement of access and mobility of visitors to the zone. Will Mepa reject the cable car project proposed by the Viset Consortium, connecting the Pinto Sea Port to Valletta . This is similar to the successful cable car connection linking Sonoma island to the Singapore mainland. With some modifications to the original plans to respect the surroundings, it is more than certain that visitors who have seen the massive cable transportation project in action in Singapore can assent to the adoption of the cable car project .Politicians then need to work hard to have it delivered in time to improve accessibility in to and out of their City.
Like many projects included in the ‘Connections’ idea , the Cable Car Proposal is innovative, provocative, and functional, considering the serious mobility issues pertaining to Valletta.
Cruise liner agents have been making a case for more facilities to enable more ships to make it to port as the current quay is practically operating at full capacity and the VISET consortium, which runs the terminal, have often publicly lamented that they had to turn down business because of lack of capacity.
Additionally the project could include the restoration and rehabilitation of buildings, the upgrading of public areas, and possibly the demolition and redevelopment of specific buildings. Urban design is a crucial factor in providing free-flow and permeability of the city and public or common spaces.
This rehabilitation approach is based on research conducted by Mimcol.
The projects are listed in the Grand Harbour roadmap and we are glad that the erstwhile Investment Minister Austin Gatt is steering the project. He is after all, a resident of ‘the City’ and knows best on how to enhance its faded values. Furthermore , the pet idea of Dr Gatt has the advantage of being administered by him , the same ministry who gave birth to Smart City. But there is crunch as critics doubt if we could achieve much prior to elections given the unsavoury legacy which bequeathed us with stories of undue cost-overruns and delays on similar projects.
It is true that a good start is needed. This is a long term plan such as that involving the Cottonera waterfront. The financing of the project may also attract EU funding as has happened in other ports.
Again, Mepa needs its time to digest the scheme and various plans before issuing permits while various buildings require immediate intervention, as a result of their present state of decay (some damaged extensively due to war ).
It is positive that both parties are focusing on the regeneration of the Grand Harbour area.
Ideally we can wake up one morning and witness a transformation linking Rinella ie., SmartCity, the Cottonera and Valletta waterfront as one contiguous development . Others warn us not to repeat the mistakes in design quoting the over crowding and marring of the Sliema coastline due to the MIDI project in Tigne’ and delays in restoration of Manoel island and Lazarreto .Both suffer from years of neglect.
Back to the Cottonera theme ,here we find that the Venetian Casino changed hands many times and there was even a brief termination of its license. The proposed hotel is still on hold while the unsightly looking apartments replete with grey steel girdles on the front still await residents. Yet we need to thank heavens for little mercies. Since the contentious Cottonera Waterfront project which twenty years ago gravitated in a no confidence vote and brought down the labour government we witnessed a substantial upgrading.
Waterfront redevelopment can take a long time, even decades. Governments aim at achieving short-term social and economic benefits from a long-term development processes, and in bridging from “now to then” to minimise disruption and maximise the economic benefits of waterfront development.
It is rumoured that Dock No. 2 will be converted and used for the repair and maintenance of super yachts, extending the current super yacht operation, which is now limited to Dock No. 3.
Also tenders have been issued for comercialisation and re-design of dock no one.
Evidently , dockside areas in Cospicua became neglected and subject to high levels of deprivation. However, increasing pressure for land in the three Cities for new build has led renewed political pressure to turn to their declining harbour sides. But there are pitfalls:-can we afford to repeat the mistakes on the Cottonera’s design of facades for new build apartments ? Not really as, too often new styles of architecture bear no resemblance to the local vernacular.
Any large-scale conservation project will inevitably stimulate the regeneration of a key area of the inner harbour area and designs have to blend and respect with great sensitivity for aesthetic value and historical significance with the functional considerations of a busy cruise line terminal and a promenade with multifarious commercial, cultural and leisure activities.
Yet, even in the times of the Knights of Malta they engaged the best architects to preserve the baroque design of palaces and auberges .While mindful that the fortified city had to serve for changing trends and act as a contemporized city our forefathers have bequeathed us with a jewel of architecture which is now our responsibility to restore.
George M. Mangion
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