Frank Gehry's eye-popping design for four wonky seafront skyscrapers has been dubbed the most extraordinary British building project for 25 years.

Deyan Sugjic, editor of leading Milan-based architecture magazine Domus, believes Gehry's design for the King Alfred site in Hove rivals the Royal Pavilion.

Gehry, designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, wants four jagged towers to rise up from the site. One of which, at 38 storeys, would be the tallest building in the county.

A sports centre would be incorporated into one of the towers and a winter garden and sea-water pool would also be created.

The plans have already received a mixed reception from those living nearby but won praise from industry experts.

Mr Sugjic's views will be published in a special supplement about Brighton and Hove in The Observer tomorrow, edited by Brighton journalist Brian Oliver.

In his critique, Mr Sugjic said: "Every decade or so a design comes along somewhere in the world that is so extraordinary, so compelling and so powerful it changes the way people see architecture everywhere.

"Frank Gehry has done it once already with his traffic-stopping, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

"And if Gehry's proposal for the King Alfred site on Hove's seafront gets built, he would do that all over again.

"It is probably the most extraordinary piece of architecture to be seen in Britain in the past 25 years and certainly the most remarkable in Brighton since the completion of the Royal Pavilion.

"Gehry's design would be a landmark as extreme in its own way as Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona."

He goes on to criticise Gehry's rival for the development, Wilkinson Eyre.

He said: "Despite the striking silhouettes, the towers are carefully sited so the view to the sea down St Aubyn's is maintained.

"Wilkinson Eyre's scheme, which, perversely puts its smallest windows in the walls closest to the sea and fails to respect the sea view from St Aubyn's, simply cannot compete."

The supplement, called 21st Century Brighton and Hove, features articles by city residents.

Headmaster of Brighton College Dr Anthony Seldon is among those who have written articles.

The two rival schemes for the site are being considered by planners at the city council.