Debate continues on Piano's City Gate plans (1)

It seems so simple, yet for our politicians it is so complicated! For 60 years they have been taking us for a ride and now they come up with this mega-expensive venture! What more can complement our capital city's entrance and its bastions than its original structures? Why not build a replica of the old theatre and City Gate? Which other building can be more original and in harmony with the surroundings? Why employ a world known architect to come up with the idea of just pulling City Gate down, leaving the theatre as it is and surrounding it with perspex walls, destroying one of the few piazzas in the city and replacing the parking area in the ditch with a garden?!

Castles and old cities around the world have been doing this for such a long time! But on this special tiny island we turned our capital's ditch into a parking lot and Mdina is surrounded by an eye-sore of a dusty football ground and tennis court. And yet it was beyond the imagination of our politicians to figure out that gardens could be more appropriate for such sites. Did we need a foreign master architect to tell us that?

And why do we have to demolish Freedom Square for the new parliament building when there are so many buildings in Valletta in a pitiable state? St Elmo is only one building that comes to mind. Wouldn't it be more impressive for a capital city to welcome visitors with a majestic pedestrian square which Freedom Square should be turned into? It certainly would be far less impressive for visitors to encounter the building where our great politicians congregate to tackle such difficult tasks as elevating the standard of our capital's entrance.

As for the theatre and the City Gate; so much money could be spared if the government follows the example of the Mediterranean Conference Centre which was turned into what we know today from the ruins of the Knights Hall by government architects and workers in months? Why not use the same Labour force to make replicas of those old monuments which made our capital's entrance so unique?