Islamic Cultural Center of New York (+Video)
It was the first mosque and religious center built specifically for New York’s growing Muslim community.
Its design represents the rich and varied Muslim traditions in a contemporary context, relying on the use of geometric principles that formulate the basis of both Islamic and Modern architectural vocabularies.
The center comprises a mosque, assembly space, and minaret. Following religious law, the prayer hall is oriented toward Mecca, a rotation of 29 degrees from Manhattan’s orthogonal street grid. A structural system of four intersecting steel trusses supports the mosque’s dome and allows for a column-free interior hall.
A play between solid granite and diaphanous glass elements characterizes the building’s exterior and interior. Light enters the building at various points — through glass inset strips in the facade, through a glass reveal beneath the dome and through clerestory windows with fritted ceramic patterns — to emphasize a progression through the space.
