Frank Gehry’s scheme has been selected for the seafront at Hove in Sussex. The 30 million pound project, designed in collaboration with British architect Piers Gough (of CZWG) and sports structures experts HOK was chosen in preference to the two other proposals from Wilkinson Eyre and Richard Rogers.
Gehry’s design – four 38 storey towers containing 438 apartments and a sports complex – will replace the existing complex built in the thirties. The intention of the council is that it will serve to regenerate the whole area. The money made from the sale of the luxury apartments will be used to build 170 council dwellings for the less wealthy.
Hove is the latest of a series of projects which use spectacular and high profile architecture to this end, following on from Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Newcastle. As well as of course the example of the Gehry’s Guggenheim at Bilbao, opened in 1997.
