Heading west on 14th Street from Northside Drive toward Peachtree Street, the copper dome and minarets of Al-Farooq Masjid provide a new foreground to the Midtown skyline.
The octagonal mosque is reminiscent of a scene from the Middle East. Still, there it is, occupying a spot along Atlanta's squared-off high-rises and low-rises.
 Photos by JEAN SHIFRIN/Special |
| It took more than 17 months and $19 million to build the BAPS Shri Swaminaranyan Mandir in Lilburn. The temple was completed in 2007, and is comprised of nearly 35,000 pieces of stone. |
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| The marble carvings on the mandir are so detailed throughout the Hindu temple, facial expressions can be seen. The temple is made of Italian carrara marble, Turkish limra limestone and Indian pink sandstone. |
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| Al-Farooq Masjid, a new mosque near completion on 14th Street in Atlanta, will be the largest place of worship for Muslims in the state, and one of the largest mosques in the Southeast. |
 Jean Shifrin |
| Intricately carved arches line the outside of the Al-Farooq Masjid. |
 Jean Shifrin |
| Al-Farooq Masjid provides a new foreground to the Midtown skyline. |
About 20 miles to the northeast of the mosque, a gleaming BAPS Shri Swaminaranyan Mandir rises above an aging strip mall on Lawrenceville Highway in Lilburn, a virtual Taj Mahal surrounded by distinctly American suburban sprawl.
These two newcomers to the architectural landscape provide some of the most concrete visual confirmation of what the U.S. Census Bureau has been saying for years — metro Atlanta is becoming a true melting pot of cultures and nationalities.
Early evidence of an international migration into metro Atlanta showed up decades ago on a few church signs announcing bilingual services. Then, as entrepreneurs from other countries opened businesses, the imprint expanded to storefronts advertised in foreign languages, including Spanish and Korean.
The transition of communities functioning within nondescript and unmarked buildings into a more prominent architectural presence helps them become part of the cultural life of the larger community, said Sabir Khan, an associate professor at Georgia Tech's School of Architecture. He notes that, to the casual observer, mosques and other community gathering places in adapted structures often are not distinguishable from nearby similar-looking buildings.
"If they weren't visible outside their own community, they would exist only on one level," Khan said. "But when the buildings are built, they are playing a part in a larger conversation."
He said grand statements such as the new buildings in Midtown and Lilburn create a new mental image of what metro Atlanta is.
"The temple and the mosque become the focus of not just religious activity, but also cultural activity for the people who go to the mosque or temple," Khan said. "And it is significant for all of us, because it has also become part of the Atlanta landscape."
The community effect is part of a careful plan, said Medhat Elmesky, a Panama City, Fla., architect who designed the mosque.
"Every religion has its own identity and my concern was to reflect that identity while still making it fit in America," Elmesky said. "This was not like building it in the Middle East or in small town like Panama City. When you have a good building, it makes people feel more dignified and relate better to society."
Kahn said a similar communal effect is at work with the feelings people associate with the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and the Sweet Auburn neighborhood. The 100-year-old enclave of Queen Anne cottages and shotgun houses may not be architecturally significant. But you can sense a presence walking through the district, knowing it once was home to Atlanta's black middle class and their churches, such as Ebenezer Baptist and Big Bethel A.M.E.
"With the mosque, the temple and Sweet Auburn, they all exist on different levels for different people," Khan said.
Despite the cultural significance, Khan said, the architecture in each isn't particularly noteworthy other than how it fits into its environment or history.
That said, some buildings in the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District are more than the sum of their brick and mortar, according to Dean Rowley, a park ranger and historian with the National Park Service which manages everything at the historic site except for the King Center.
For example, he said, the Odd Fellows building is widely considered an office building, although the lower floor has been used as shops since it opened in 1915.
"It was Atlanta's first mixed-use complex, although people were just as skeptical about mixed-use projects then as now," Rowley said.
The Herndon Building's less-than-pristine brickwork, Rowley said, is a result of Alonzo Herndon's decision to allow unskilled workers to practice masonry on his project so they could learn a trade. Office spaces inside feature odd configurations because Herndon wanted to provide as much space as possible to black professionals who had trouble finding places to lease in then-segregated Atlanta.
The composite architectural experience helps show those who tour the area why it was a fertile place for the civil rights movement to blossom, Rowley said.
"We want people to see that there was a two-story home next to a modest one-story home and that helps explain why King was able to relate to so many people and relate to so many people's problems," Rowley said. "Auburn Avenue was known as the richest black street in America, so he had a different experience growing up than most. So, he could tell people you don't have to take it, because you don't deserve it."
Because Sweet Auburn's rich history, Khan said the architecture likely connects on many different levels. He said that within the black community perceptions of the buildings likely mean something slightly different to someone who lives nearby in the Old Fourth Ward than it does to a newcomer who lives in Stone Mountain or a longtime Atlantan who lives in Cascade Heights.
"That area's significance to Atlanta is far greater than any individual building," Khan said. "It exists in the national imagination and is also important to how the community sees itself."
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