HOUSTON – An Ismaili Muslim center is planned for a prominent 11-acre parcel just west of downtown Houston near Buffalo Bayou. The site, which once hosted Houston’s first Sears store, will provide a central location for the city’s Ismaili community.
The Ismaili Center in Houston will serve approximately 40,000 Ismaili Muslims in the region. Planned facilities include a Jamatkhana (prayer hall), educational spaces, a social hall, and multiple flexible meeting and conference rooms to support religious, cultural, and civic activities.
Located at the southeast corner of Allen Parkway and Montrose Boulevard, the property slopes down from West Dallas Street toward Buffalo Bayou. Its prominent position along the bayou makes the site both visible and connected to Houston’s urban landscape.
Historically, the land was home to Houston’s first Sears store, which opened in 1929. Following severe flooding from Buffalo Bayou in 1935, Sears moved to a Midtown location on South Main Street. The original Allen Parkway building later became known as the Robinson Warehouse, a notable Art Deco industrial landmark.
In 2006 the Aga Khan Foundation purchased the property and the Robinson Warehouse was subsequently demolished to prepare the site for the new Ismaili Center.
While construction will take several years, the design team has been selected through an international competition. The appointed team brings global experience and local sensitivity to the project’s architectural and landscape design.
“We are excited to be working with architects of world stature and experience to design this unique project. It will embody both Houston’s and the Ismaili community’s pluralistic vision,” said Barkat Fazal, President of the Ismaili Council for the USA.
DLR Group/Westlake Reed Leskosky will collaborate with London-based design architect Farshid Moussavi, who also teaches architecture at Harvard University. Landscape architect Nelson Byrd Woltz has been engaged to design courtyards and open spaces that respond to the site’s bayou-adjacent conditions, including considerations for extreme flooding events.
The Houston center will join a network of Ismaili Centers commissioned under the guidance of His Highness the Aga Khan over the past four decades. These cultural institutions, located in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, and Tajikistan, are designed to be architectural landmarks and community hubs. Once completed, the Houston center will function as a national focal point for the social, cultural, and intellectual life of the Ismaili Muslim community in the United States.
“We are very honored to partner with the Ismaili community to bring this historic building to life,” said Paul Westlake, Senior Principal at DLR Group|WRL and lead of the firm’s Cultural + Performing Arts Studio. “Houston is home to one of the largest Ismaili Muslim populations in North America, and the new center will serve as a place where community members can learn, pray, and engage in fellowship. Our team is privileged to have been chosen for a project that will have such a lasting impact on the local community and beyond.”