Architect chosen for £100m Hove Station revamp (From The Argus)

Architect chosen for £100m Hove Station revamp

12:46pm Tuesday 3rd July 2012 in Business News By John Keenan

An architect has been picked for a £100 million transformation of a derelict area.

Developers Matsim Properties has chosen architect Nick Lomax and his firm LCE to redesign the area around Hove Station.

The proposed scheme, revealed last week by The Argus, features five dome-shaped towers, with the tallest 60m high.

The plan will involve the building of several hundred homes and at least 100,000 square feet of office space creating 1,000 jobs.

It will also include a nine-screen Vue cinema and an art gallery. The go-ahead for the transformation of the six-acre site in Conway Street, Ellen Street and Fonthill Road relies on the successful sale of The Argus headquarters in Hollingbury to Brighton and Hove Buses.

Nick Lomax, boss at LCE, which also mastermined the Jubilee Street redevelopment said: “This is the right place to build tall buildings. I was really taken with the developer’s idea for a real mixed-use scheme.

“There is a tension between traditional and modern ideas in the area which has to be sensitively managed but this has to happen quickly. I think we can see work start within 18 months.”

Andy Lambor, managing director of Matsim said his firm choose LCE, based in Western Road Brighton, because the architect’s ideas blended with the developer’s plans.

Mr Lambor said the size, shape and positioning of the tall towers will evolve as the finer details of the scheme emerge.

He said: “We now get down to detail and start the planning process. We intend to submit our planning application within four months.

“We have a window in time with both the existing tenants at the site and the bus company where everything can fall into place, otherwise the opportunity could be lost.

“We hope our team and the local authority will all work towards delivering a scheme that will transform the area around Hove station.”

Hove MP Mike Weatherley said: “If the team behind this project continues to be open to ideas from those living nearby then I am certainly inclined to support.

“These are early proposals so lots will no doubt change but people need to know that Hove and Brighton are open for business.”

But critics accused the architects and planners of putting forward a crowded, dreary and outsize plan.

The unsuccessful architects competing for the project were Russ Drage, in Fleet Street, Brighton and Orbit in London.