Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center

The new home for the Islamic Society of Boston, founded in 1982, has had a prolonged gestation period. Envisioned as early as 1980, when noted Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy provided a design for a Boston mosque, the project moved into an active stage in 2000. The society finally broke ground in 2003 for a $22 million, sixty-thousand-square-foot structure on land sold by the City of Boston on this prominent corner at Roxbury Crossing. A red brick building trimmed with courses of black brick and cast-stone pointed arches, the mosque is set parallel to the boulevard, with the mihrab niche, defining the orientation toward Mecca, projecting from the east facade on King Street. An arcade along the main elevation ends as an entrance court set on a diagonal to the street corner. A minaret, 140 feet high, marks the mosque on the local skyline, its crowning copper dome repeating the larger dome over the worship space.