From Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
By Peggy Fletcher Stack | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jul 26 2013 07:52 am
Members of the building committee came to Murray architect Kimly Mangum in 1992 and told him what they wanted: a big box.
No, it wasn’t for a Wal-Mart or a Shopko or a Kmart.
It was for a mosque.
You see, they had 2.75 acres in West Valley City, but only $600,000 for the sacred space. All they needed was a prayer hall, partitions to separate the sexes during services, distinct washing areas and an indented section for an imam to lead prayers.
Mangum got no more specific instructions than that.
So the architect, who previously had designed Southern Baptist chapels and Mormon meetinghouses but never a mosque, began to research Islamic architecture and to visit other sites.
On this budget, he knew, the mosque would not have the grandeur of Istanbul’s Blue Mosque or the majesty of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock. But could a boxy building exude a real sense of Muslim identity and make its mark on Utah’s religious skyline?
Twenty years later, Mangum’s creation is the state’s most prominent — and only original — mosque.
