Brighton i-360
I’m looking forward to the i-360 if it ever gets built. Standing at the top of Sussex Heights, which I believe at 25 floors is the tallest building in England south of the Thames, you get an amazing view of Brighton, Hove and the surrounding areas. You get a sense that this town isn’t just a glorified seaside resort but something more. Here’s some computer imagery of the i-360 in situ: http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/videos/index.var.738.0.0.php
Looking towards the coast from Hollingbury Hill Sussex Heights sticks out above the city yet the i-360 will be even taller than the hill itself. I’ll have to get over my medium-level fear of heights before I’ll go up in it though. And I wont be going on a windy day, thats for sure.
Brighton has a long history of weird and wonderful architecture that’s different from the norm. This is why I support the building of the Frank Gehry buildings at the site of the King Alfred. I also quite like this new design for Medina House just 100 metres towards Brighton – full story at The Argus:
As long as we still get these views I think we should build every weird and wonderful design that comes along. This is Brighton not Eastbourne.
Now that I’m a Hampshire resident I should point out that the spinnaker tower in Portsmouth is 170m high – but you could argue that its not a “building”. I doubt it had any of the controversy of a tall building in Brighton – there’s not much you could do to actually spoil the skyline down this way.
The anti-nimbys must shout louder than the nimbys – that is the answer…
Ghery’s design proposed for the site of Medina House is hideous. It looks like a pile of washing up. The guy is a lunatic. Why not get some local, aspiring architect to do something interesting, or just leave the beautiful Medina House well alone. i don’t want to live in a city where lunatics from new York are paid millions to mess up our city, just because he’s famous does not mean he’s a decent architect. If he had an ounce of integrity he would refuse to build on the site of the infinitely more beautiful Medina house.
That redesign of Medina House is not by Gehry.