One of my favorite places to go in Europe is Barcelona. I love the culture, the tapas, the nightlife, the beaches, museums, history, the endless people watching on the La Rambla. And I especially love the architecture.

One of my favorite architects is Antoni Gaudí. Anywhere you go in Barcelona, you see one of his creations and automatically know, “That’s a Gaudí.” They have a very unique, yet specific, look to them. They defy conventional stylistic classification so much so, that the only way to describe them is: Classic Gaudí.

Truth be told, probably more than his actual architecture, I love the story behind it. Especially his most famous piece of work — the still uncompleted Sagrada Família. Today, it is the most visited monument in Spain, and it’s one of his many works that has been declared a World Heritage Site.

The paraphrased version of the story behind the Sagrada Família goes something like this: Antoni Gaudí was a man dedicated to his work. He began construction on this famous church in 1883, and it was considered highly controversial at the time. The architectural purists in Barcelona put up quite a fight. “It doesn’t fit here!” they claimed and were so dedicated to keeping things as they were, that by comparison, Park City’s planning commission looks like a group of anything goes, ‘yes’ people.

Gaudí was so upset by the controversy his famous work was creating, he became a total recluse and lived in the basement of the church. Talk about your home office. His plans for the Sagrada Família were largely in his head, with a few notes and sketches drawn on paper, and ever changing.

One day, in 1926, he uncharacteristically ventured out of the church and was promptly hit by a passing tram.

For many years he had isolated himself, and perhaps, gone a bit mad in the process. In fact, he hadn’t been seen in public in so long, that when he was taken to the hospital after the tram accident, workers there put him in the homeless ward. He was shaggy and shabby so they assumed he was a beggar and gave him substandard care.

A day or two later, the church’s chaplain realized the man lying unconscious in the hospital’s homeless ward was actually the world-famous architect who was supposed to building the Sagrada Família. But it was too late and Gaudí passed away that day.

When word of his death got out, the architectural purists celebrated. They ran to the church and lit fire to all the design plans they could find. They assumed they’d won, and it wouldn’t be built. And thankfully, they were wrong.

Because the plans were burned and the rest died with Gaudí, no one has ever really known how, exactly, to finish the Sagrada Família. Crews are still to this day working on it, but projections are, the Sagrada Família will finally be finished in 2026, one hundred years after Gaudí’s death.

The point of this history lesson is this: Despite all the controversy and opposing viewpoints and drama — there’s a city in Europe where millions of tourists go each year, just to walk through a building designed by a famous architect. There’s a lot to do in Barcelona, but the Sagrada Família is why over two million people put the city on their European itinerary. A century ago, no one could have predicted this. A lot of people said the building was unsightly and it didn’t fit in with the surrounding architecture. Today though, it is Spain’s most iconic, and most visited landmark.

I hope, for the sake of this town’s future, we reconsider the architectural plans submitted by the Kimball Art Center. Over the last 100 years, the only thing the Sagrada Família has attracted more than controversy; is tourism. Perhaps, with a different world-famous architect designing the Kimball Art Center, 100 years from now this town will benefit from his vision, and tourists will come just to walk through a building he designed.

The Kimball Art Center is the Sagrada Família of Park City. If given the chance, its architect, Bjarke Ingels Group, might just be our Antoni Gaudí.

Amy Roberts is a longtime Park City resident, freelance writer and the proud owner of two ill-behaved rescue dogs, Boston and Stanley.