Judging from recent articles in The Argus, the Gehry Towers proposed for the King Alfred site are again raising their heads.

The existing King Alfred buildings are ugly. Age has not improved them and the citizens of Hove deserve better sports facilities than the tired old ones which the current buildings house.

However, any new structure has to respect, not intimidate, the domestic scale of the surrounding Victorian and Edwardian buildings which our forebears have bequeathed to us.

The Gehry towers seem to bear no relationship to the marine environment they would dominate.

In short, they could be anywhere. They do have great sculptural qualities but buildings are more than just sculpture writ large.

The computer simulations I have seen all show what the towers would look like when viewed at a distance from out at sea.

But most people will see the towers close-up, from the land. Furthermore, the simulations seem to shroud the towers in one of the city's famous sea mists, making it impossible to get any idea of what they might look like on a clear day.

As for sending a group of officers to Gehry's LA base to view the models, why not fly the models over here?

At least that way they could be put on public display for all of us to see and comment on.

Seeing them set in their eventual marine environment would give us a better idea of how they might look.

Having officers see them in a city like LA, which is dominated by other tall buildings, will make it psychologically more difficult for the officers to assess their qualities when set in a low-rise environment such as Hove.

Even great architects can produce turkeys and Gehry has come up with a corker. We have a tradition of killing turkeys for Christmas, so let's get to it.

-Dr Alan Bond, Brighton