Modern marvel or concrete ‘blob’? Inside LA’s divisive $700m art gallery

The new building will hold a rotating selection from Lacma’s permanent collection of more than 150,000 art objects. Photograph: Iwan Baan

As Los Angeles county’s new $720m art museum building nears completion, it’s still haunted by a single, vexing question: how do you hang art in a gallery where every single wall is made of massive slabs of concrete?

Designed by Peter Zumthor, a prizewinning Swiss architect, the new building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) has sparked controversy in the art world since its initial designs were made public in 2013.