Swiss architect Peter Zumthor’s controversial design for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has turned into the most serious cultural issue in the city in the last decade. This Tuesday, April 9th, it will come to a head as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors considers the project for a $125 million construction grant that could determine whether or not the project proceeds.

Notoriously slow, Zumthor has spent ten years and counting (earning something north of $10 million) on a design to replace a quartet of existing buildings on the eastern side of the LACMA campus. Severely compromised by changes over the decades, the three pavilions, designed by Los Angeles architect William Pereira in the 1960s, and the Art of the Americas Building, by Norman Pfeiffer that opened in 1986, are uninspired designs that have not aged gracefully, and they need seismic upgrading.