Houston opens the nation’s first Ismaili Center, the seventh worldwide
The recently opened Ismaili Center, Houston—the first in the U.S. and the seventh worldwide—will serve as both a place of religious congregation for Shia Ismaili Muslims and a welcoming space for the wider community.
Located on 11 acres overlooking Buffalo Bayou Park near downtown Houston, the Center’s facilities will be available for public programming, community use, and collaborative initiatives.
The Ismaili Center, Houston will host programs in education, art, music, performance, and conversation to promote understanding among people of all backgrounds.
The center’s luminous main structure is surrounded by over nine acres of gardens and courtyards, including tree-lined promenades, shaded terraces, and water features such as a reflecting fountain at the main entry. The building and landscape embody the Ismaili ethos of harmony among people, place, and nature.
The center’s 150,000-sf, five-story structure was designed by Farshid Moussavi, founder of Farshid Moussavi Architecture, with landscape architecture by Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.
The exterior’s stone tiles appear as quiet massing from afar but as refined ornament up close. Informed by Houston’s climate, the porous verandas and atria pair shaded outdoor rooms with luminous interiors.
The interior’s palette features silk-laminated glass, steel, wood paneling, and ultra-high-performance concrete, while an oculus tops the central atrium. The interior includes permanent and rotating art exhibitions, a black box theater, function rooms, a café, administrative offices, classrooms, and a Jamatkhana (prayer hall for Ismaili Muslims).
The center fulfills the vision of the Aga Khan IV, the leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims, who died in February 2025. His son and successor, the Aga Khan V, brought the project to completion.
“This building may be called an Ismaili Center, but it is not here for Ismailis only. It is for all Houstonians to use; a place open to all who seek knowledge, reflection, and dialogue,” the Aga Khan V said at the Center’s November opening.
On the project team: Farshid Moussavi Architecture (architect), DLR Group (architect and engineer of record), Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (landscape architect), AKT II (structural, civil, geotechnical, bioclimatic, and facade engineer), McCarthy (contractor).
