This building is directly across from the prison on the busy Oystermouth Road. To me, it speaks more of what Pevsner called "the architecture of menace" than the prison itself. It's not a particularly bad building - its long horizontal modernist lines are respectable - but it would be more suited for some inland site in the urban planning of a valleys town or in Cardiff's business district rather than on this fabulous site alongside Swansea Bay's promenade.

I asked my Swansea hosts why do architects of major buildings along this promenade arrange their building forms so that the long facades are at right angles to the sea view and overlook the car parks while only their short sides get the best views. It seems a waste.

It's not all hopeless, there is some civic dignity in its approach and the double height entrance has some presence but, on the whole, this was a missed opportunity in my opinion. I needed my faith restored in civic architecture. Swansea certainly has the building to do that, so off I went.