Unesco to probe City Gate project

Unesco is concerned about the impact of Renzo Piano’s City Gate plans on Valletta’s World Heritage status and intends to send a team of experts to Malta to assess the project, Times of Malta has learnt. Unesco’s Petya Totcharova said the concerns were about the potential impact of new development on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of Valletta, for which it has been inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List. Unesco is in contact with the Maltese authorities, said Ms Totcharova, chief of the Europe and North America Unit at the World Heritage Centre in Paris. City Gate is in the process of being transformed, in an €80 million project commissioned by the previous government and designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano. The project includes a new Parliament building and the conversion of the bombed-out Opera House into an open-air theatre. It is expected to be completed next year. Ms Totcharova confirmed that Unesco intends to send an “advisory mission of experts” to Malta to assess the state of conservation and potential impact of the project on the city and its OUV. The visit is likely to happen in the “near future” although no date has been confirmed, according to...