Van Alen penthouse proposal

View from Pier

Planning Application BH2012/03157 proposes a side extension on the westernmost penthouse flat of the much-praised Van Alen building on Marine Parade. For the observer it will amount to a white almost cube added on the side terrace on the extreme left of the building. See plan below.

The extension will not be visible from the street but in the view from the pier will clearly upset to some extent the wall/window rhythm of the building. In the past, and all along the seafront, a motley collection of accretions have been allowed to the roofs of many fine buildings not least the decapitation of the Metropole. The extension proposed is, by comparison, a minor blemish. But the Van Alen has become a prestigious example of good modern architecture in Brighton and is still as the architect envisaged it. Perhaps the time has come for the planners to say 'no'.