As the proposed King Alfred developments are to remain on the backburner for a little longer, I am prompted to contribute this small slice of opinion from Germany, where I live at present (I return to Portslade soon) while working in the Dusseldorf suburb of Krefeld.

As some of your readers may know, there is a Frank Gehrydesigned building here quite similar in style to the proposed tower development. The German structure of has or more floors, and is one of the more noticeable of the buildings which are built around Dusseldorf's Medienhafen district. In fact, anyone with access to WDR television's Lokalzeit news programme will be able to confirm this - the Dusseldorf Gehry is noticeably centre screen in the show's opening titles.

In fact, it wouldn't look at all out of place along Hove seafront, mostly as it isn't significantly larger than Brighton's recently opened new library building.

And it certainly isn't the most eccentrically modernist construction on display in Medienhafen either.

But wait a minute, don't those two towers proposed for Hove really seem to belong to a much larger architectural landscape?

And isn't the Medienhafen Gehry somehow dwarfed by its surroundings?

Dare I suggest that somewhere between East Sussex and Nordrhine-Westfalen, someone, somewhere, has managed to cross several wires re locations?

I certainly don't expect the matter to find any resolution this side of Christmas.

  • Jon Gordon, Krefeld, Germany