Former Sea Malta building in Floriana being demolished
This is not the way to treat our diminishing modernist heritage
Enemalta plc contractors yesterday began demolishing parts of the former Sea Malta office buildings in Floriana, removing unsafe structures that were at risk of collapsing, the company said in a statement.
In recent years, parts of this building, situated at Flagstone Wharf in the Inner Grand Harbour area, were used as a warehouse. However, other parts of this block have been in a state of disrepair for over a decade. These structures were constructed on metal columns embedded on reclaimed land. After years of sea erosion, these foundations are now subsiding.
The company’s architects, in collaboration with the Planning Authority, identified parts of this dilapidated building which were at risk of falling onto nearby properties, or in the sea. Demolition works started today and will be completed within a few weeks. Several measures to mitigate noise and dust are being taken to minimise inconvenience to nearby residents and businesses.
The company said it will be conducting further studies to review the stability of the entire site, and to determine future use, once the dangerous structures are removed.
In a statement, the Kamra talPeriti, together with Din l-Art Ħelwa and Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, said the former Sea Malta building was a fine modernist building, which, like the Marsa power station, had not made it to the list of scheduled buildings.
The three organisations asked for clarifications from the Planning Authority on Friday, when the authority approved the demolition of part of the building on the basis of a legal notice that authorises “emergency remedial works to mitigate or remove existing danger.”
They said the legal notice required a clear statement of the degree of danger, and the description of the “full nature, methodology and extent of the proposed works.”
“In addition, the PA may only authorise, through this process, works which are limited to the removal of the danger, and as long as the danger cannot be removed by temporary shoring. The legal notice emphasises that the procedure has to be ‘limited to the min- imum emergency works required to remove the source of danger, until any required permission for more lasting interventions is obtained.’”
The Kamra tal-Periti said that nowhere in the structural appraisal report submitted by the consult- ants of the applicant is it stated that any part of the structure is in a state of immediate danger.
“On the contrary, the report advises that ‘remedial measures to strengthen the existing building are clearly not financially feasible.’”
It said the statement of the applicant that the current works are removing unsafe structures that were at risk of collapsing was not quite correct.
It insisted that the procedure had been vitiated and called on the Planning Autority to “immediately declare the dangerous structure approval null and void, since the information submitted to it was not sufficient to merit the use of this particular planning procedure.
This is not the way to treat our diminishing modernist heritage, the statement read.