Look at London and you will see it is being transformed by a wonderful series of new buildings showing British architecture at its best.

Every time I go to the capital, another project has been completed.

The Wallace Collection, behind Oxford Street, has been hugely improved by making the courtyard into a classy space while an even more impressive courtyard has been completed at the British Museum.

Somerset House, off the Strand, has been opened to the public with an ice rink.

Even though the Millennium Bridge has a wobble, which is now being corrected, it is a magical and beautiful creation, while nearby Tate Modern is a triumphant renovation of a redundant power station.

The much vilified Millennium Dome is still a striking structure and tube stations on the line leading to it are the best in the capital since the Thirties.

The National Portrait Gallery, near Trafalgar Square, has been greatly improved with an atrium.

There are now ambitious plans for revamping the square itself and for improving the South Bank where the Festival Hall and National Theatre are both looking a trifle tired.

If some of this architectural talent and energy could be transported 50 miles south to the new city of Brighton and Hove it would be hugely welcome. The history of new buildings since the Second World War is dismal.

The windowless King's West building on Brighton seafront still stands as an architectural affront to the city centre.

Next door, the box-like Brighton Centre is not much better while tower blocks such as Sussex Heights and the Bedford (now Hilton) Hotel are hideous.

There is little to gladden the eye at the Thistle Hotel or the Prince Regent swimming pool.

The American Express building has been compared to a wedding cake, but few brides would willingly choose one like that.

There is a real chance this year to make amends for the follies of the past when plans are put forward for two sites which have been derelict for far too long.

They are the land next to Brighton Station and Jubilee Street next to the swimming pools.

Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, responsible for so much of the London renaissance, are unlikely to be tempted to work on the south coast in the foreseeable future but there is plenty of younger architectural talent around.

The signs are encouraging. Models of all three proposals for the library and civic square at Jubilee Street, displayed at an exhibition six months ago, look promising. The chosen consortium, Norwich Union PPP, is keen to make the most of a prestige project.

Over on the station site, the New England Consortium has ambitious plans for a site of up to 13 acres. Only a diagram has been produced and it remains to be seen how exciting the architecture will be.

But there is scope to make use of the slope of the site so that an exciting new scheme can cascade from the grandeur of the train shed to the more domestic details of London Road shopping centre.

There are other sites which should be redeveloped within the next year or two including the King Alfred on Hove seafront and Black Rock in Brighton, both owned by Brighton and Hove Council.

The local authority must make fine design as high a priority as good content for these prominent pieces of land which deserve to become modern symbols of the new city of which it can be truly proud.