Fort Cambridge high-rise hits snag

The Planning Authority is assessing the application for a 31-floor hotel proposed on top of a historical barracks “according to the development brief which regulates planning policies and constraints in that particular area”.

The Fort Cambridge Development Brief approved in January 2006 describes the barracks as a “landmark building” to be retained due to its historical and architectural importance, and as a buffer between new higher development on the site and the surrounding residential blocks. “No additional floors over the third floor will be allowed over this landmark building,” the brief had warned.

But while the Planning Authority is invoking the development brief in what now appears to be a major stumbling block to the project, it still has to take a decision on whether the historical barracks is to be granted protection.

A proposal to grant protection to the former British service barracks at Tigné’s Fort Cambridge is still being considered – five years since – by the Planning Authority, as plans for a 31-storey hotel edge closer.

Developers GAP, which built the Fort Cambridge high-rise, want to build the tower hotel atop the barracks.

“Discussions with all stakeholders are still underway related to this scheduling,” a spokesperson for the Planning Authority told MaltaToday, confirming that the issue was discussed by the PA’s Executive Council on 8 May 2018. A site visit was scheduled and carried out by the Council, however no final decision was taken.

Cultural Superintendent Joe Magro Conti recently confirmed that the building merits scheduling, describing he property as one with “high architectural and historical value” that would merit scheduling at an appropriate level to ensure its protection and appropriate treatment.

The scheduling of the barracks would have a bearing on the approval of GAP’s tower hotel – which was decreased from 40 storeys to 31 – because the policy allowing unlimited floors on landmark hotels does not apply to scheduled sites.

The policy on hotel heights approved in 2014 allows four- and five-star hotels to add any number of storeys over and above the maximum heights allowed in the local plan, as long as the resulting design “constitutes a landmark having unique aesthetic characteristics within the urban context”.

But this does not apply to development on “scheduled sites” like historical buildings, such as the Fort Cambridge military barracks, if the officers’ mess building is scheduled.

GAP’s plans retain just parts of the façade of the building in the fabric of the new high-rise hotel.

The Sliema local council had written to the PA in December 2015, demanding the inclusion of the officers’ mess, the only remaining part of the Fort Cambridge barracks, in the list of protected historical buildings.

The building was already on the PA’s waiting list for buildings meriting protection, namely grade two protection, before the council made its formal request, as confirmed by a PA spokesperson back in 2015. Such a designation would only permit internal alterations and the removal of more recent accretions.

Yet in the past the PA has approved the addition of extra floors on protected buildings like Mercury House in Paceville – allowed using the Floor Area Ratio mechanism which compensates vertical development with the creation of new open spaces. Unlike the policy regulating hotel heights, this policy does not exclude scheduled sites.

The policy regulating the Floor Area Ratio mechanism identifies the Tigné peninsula as an appropriate location for high-rise developments. But this is conditional on creating new open spaces which is not the case with the proposed development.

How valuable is the officers’ mess?

The Fort Cambridge officers’ mess was built between 1903 and 1905. The building was designed according to the standard Officers’ Mess designs that were used during this period. In 1915 the building was used as a military hospital.

The conversion of the barracks into a hotel in the 1980s resulted in the removal of the main porch in the north façade while existing rooms were converted into double bedrooms. “Though various non-historic internal alterations were carried out over the years, it is still believed that much of the fabric is of significant quality, meriting further study and preservation,” a report sent by architect Edward Said on behalf of the Sliema local council concluded.

The local council insists that its architectural, military and social history are clearly evident and worthy of recognition, and wants the PA to designate “a suitable buffer zone around the building so that its context is still legible.”

The PA’s own Fort Cambridge Development Brief approved in January 2006 had describes the barracks as a “landmark building” to be retained due to its historical and architectural importance, and as a buffer between new higher development on the site and the surrounding residential blocks. “No additional floors over the third floor will be allowed over this landmark building,” the brief had warned.

But since the new policy on high-rise buildings approved in 2014, any new development will not necessarily be restricted by this brief.

The hotel’s environment impact assessment report confirms that the Tigné officers’ mess would merit a Grade 1 Level of Protection as was the case with similar buildings in Pembroke. However, due to irreversible changes when the building was transformed into a hotel, the report argues that its character “has definitely been altered”.

But it continues: “Nonetheless, given its importance and given that many of the other barracks in the area have been altered, the building should be given a Grade 2 Level of Protection”.

The study also warns that integration of its facade into the lower floors of a high-rise hotel means its “mere existence as a free-standing structure will be forever lost” and the military heritage of the area “further de-contextualised”.

Over the past few weeks, 381 objections have been submitted against the hotel’s development, including ones from the Sliema Local Council, Din l-Art Helwa, Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, Moviment Graffitti and Futur Ambjent Wiehed, along with objections by various residents.

In a major blow for the developers, the Cultural Superintendent has also expressed strong reservations on the proposed development.

The Superintendence expressed its concern on the very extensive demolition being proposed, which does not preserve or integrate most of the surviving historical fabric and does not preserve the significant and legible architectural spaces.

Magro Conti described the application’s claim to seek the “retention of historic existing facades of the Fort Cambridge Barracks building” as incorrect. “The intent is clearly to preserve only the external arches that form part of these façades.”

However, according to the Superintendence, the façades also include the exterior wall of the building containing doors and windows, the arches, as well as the covered space between the two elements forming the veranda.

“The proposal to preserve only the arches on the façade as a form of applied decorative element on the new facades, without the preservation of an architectural space behind them, suggests an inadequate understanding and treatment of the historical architectural features and spaces.”