King Alfred development - Introduction

Architect Frank Gehry's controversial vision for the King Alfred site in Hove won a crucial decision in September 2005, allowing developers to push ahead with their plans.

Brighton and Hove City Council agreed that proposals for a £220 million leisure and homes complex at the site in Kingsway, Hove, met the tough planning conditions it had laid down as land-owner.

The decision paved the way for Karis, the developer behind the scheme, to submit its first formal planning application for the £48 million sports centre and 754 flats.

The flats would be built in two towers about 75m and 60m high, surrounded by eight lower blocks of up to 11 storeys. Of these, 474 would be sold and 280 would be a mix of rented and shared ownership.

The sports centre, paid for with money generated by the homes, would include a 200sqm teaching pool, a 250sqm leisure pool and a 440sqm competition pool.

The plans also feature two piazzas for general public use, with direct access and views to and from the seafront, which could act as a seating, congregation and performance area.

If planning consent is given, construction could begin in January 2007.

The new King Alfred centre would become the first project to be built in England by the man who created Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum.

Gehry's initial vision of four futurist towers - one 38 storeys tall in the scheme that won the 2003 council competition for development of the site - has been significantly scaled down in the technical planning but the debate is far from diminished.

Supporters, like Hove Up, believe a distinctive Gehry development in Hove will attract visitors.

But that doesn't persuade everyone and campaign group Save Hove pulled off a significant piece of PR by producing their own artist's impression to contradict one published by Karis.

The artist's impression was published on the front page of The Argus, keeping the debate in the public eye and on the newspaper's letters pages.