Editorial | Wednesday, 03 December 2008

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Seeing is believing

There is a certain sense of deja-vu in the Prime Minister’s declaration this week that the City Gate/Opera House project will shortly be kick-started, to be completed in four years’ time.
After all, this is not exactly the first time Dr Gonzi has made a similar commitment regarding the entrance to our capital city. Nor is Dr Gonzi the first post-war Maltese Prime Minister to promise the long-overdue reconstruction of the 19th century Theatre Royal: arguably the last remaining casualty of World War II to remain a gaping wound some 60 years after the cessation of hostilities.
As for City Gate, one is tempted to agree with the maxim that “practically anything” would represent an improvement over the present incarnation: a ghastly example of 1960s neo-Fascist architecture, further ruined by a clutter of untidy kiosks and unsightly horse-drawn cabs (and their equally unsightly cabbies), which have been allowed to claim the threshold of the capital as their own.
There can be little doubt that the entrance to Valletta is sorely in need of a make-over, and more significantly still, that Valletta as a whole urgently needs an injection of vitality and exuberance. This assumes even greater relevance in the light of the 2018 deadline, when the city “built by gentlemen for gentlemen” takes its pride of place as the European capital of culture.
However, doubt continues to reign supreme when it comes to deciding what would best replace the existing eyesore. If Gonzi has his way – and he appears to enjoy the support of the local architectural establishment – it will be the designs of world-renowned architect Renzo Piano: originally submitted some 20 years ago in 1988, and shelved indefinitely following widespread outrage.
Initial reactions to the resuscitation of this controversial project have, as usual, been mixed. But at the same time it is hard not to concur with the Prime Minister’s observation that, of all the proposals presented over the decades, Renzo Piano’s famous (some would say notorious) designs represent the most ambitious and above all holistic approach to the architectural challenges of reinventing these historic monuments for the 21st century.
Dr Gonzi might find it slightly harder to convince the conservative hardliners of the country’s vociferous environmentalist lobby – many of whom would accept nothing less than a faithful reconstruction of the previous 19th century portico, and the original Barry Opera House design.
Without wishing to enter the merits of an increasingly acrimonious aesthetical debate, it has to be said that such architectural purism is not very practical, and in many not even particularly pure. It is worth pointing out that, contrary to a widespread misconception, the previous City Gate was not the original. In fact, it was only the latest of several different reconstructions in the five centuries since the capital was founded in 1566.
By and large, however, the Prime Minister may this time find more resistance to the proposed use of the Opera House site for a new House of Parliament, than his predecessor encountered 20 years ago to the actual design itself. Coming so soon after revelations that the same Dr Gonzi recently approved an overnight wage increase for himself, his Cabinet colleagues and the former Opposition leader, this latest decision risks projecting the image of a greedy, insatiable political class, keen on appropriating all Malta’s national assets for itself.
Viewed from this angle, even the self-imposed four-year deadline is suddenly suspect. Why commit oneself to such a short time-frame, when previous projects such as the Manuel Dimech Bridge have so notoriously overshot both deadline and budget?
At least, Dr Gonzi had the good sense not to propose his own birthday for the completion date this time: as he had done with the Mater Dei Hospital project, completed in June 2007. But the 2013 target remains arguably too close to the next election for comfort; and considering that the Prime Minister also urged “national pride” in the project, it is a pity that he would also inject an overall element of political partisanship in the same breath.
Having said this, the biggest challenge he is likely to face is nothing more dramatic than widespread scepticism that the City Gate/Opera House project will ever see the light of day at all.
As observed earlier, this is but one out of dozens of failed targets to have so far dogged the project in the 60 years since the Opera House was bombed, and the 40 since Putirjal was unceremoniously demolished. The most recent came from none other than Gonzi himself, shortly after taking over the party leadership five years ago.
Admittedly, things may well work out differently this time; but until the Renzo Piano entrance is well and truly built, and the Opera House site re-developed for whatever purpose the government decides, it would be wise to fall back on the wisdom of the ages, which decrees that “seeing is believing”.

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