Photo by mosley.brian.

The future of Third Church of Christ, Scientist, the controversial building located at 16th and I Streets NW, has been a matter of furious debate for some time. But Jonathan O’Connell brings an update today — an infusion of cash means plans to demolish the structure and replace it with an office building with a space for the church’s congregation to worship are back on track. The property’s owner, ICG Properties, plans to submit the required zoning changes sometime in 2011 after Chevy Chase development firm JBG Cos. bought into the project.

The church, designed in 1971 by Araldo Cossutta of I.M. Pei’s renowned firm, has been fought over by preservationists and religious freedom advocates for years. The building’s future was considered sealed in 2009, when Office of Planning chief Harriet Tregoning overruled an application to the city’s Historic Preservation Review Board which would have protected the building from demolition.

So what’s the lesson to glean from O’Connell’s report? We all can argue about the value of any building’s form until we’re blue in the face — but those with the cash are always the ones who end up pulling the strings. C.R.E.A.M., get the money, Brutalist, Brutalist architecture, y’all.