The long awaited Prince George Islamic Centre is now ready to open its doors.
The mosque and cultural hall is located at the corner of 5th Avenue and Foothills Boulevard.
It has been under construction since 2009 but was held up by fundraising, site excavation surprises, and weather delays. Those have now been addressed.
The Prince George-area membership in the B.C. Muslim Association is about 350 people.
Once completed, said organizers, the 650-square-metres (7,000-square-foot) structure will hold a main prayer hall and a multi-purpose hall for holding conventions, youth and sport activities and other gatherings.
Future phases call for classrooms, a day care and a library.
The building design features, they said, dynamic roof forms created by the intersection of the geometries between the Prince George city grid and the axis to Mecca, to which Muslim prayer spaces align.
The design is also meant to unify the building with its geographic setting, and so the structure rises gently to the west against the backdrop of the forested escarpment, culminating in a minaret that rises above the building and is topped by an cupola.
The B.C. Muslim Association's Prince George branch announced on Monday that the building was ready to host the public.
Grand opening ceremonies begin at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Attendance is by invitation only, but another public event will be held in the near future.
A dress code is in effect. Organizers ask that those attending please observe the following:
All adult visitors and children above the age of 12 are requested to wear modest, conservative, loose fitting clothing (long skirts or trousers). No shorts, please.
Most aspects of a standard dress code are quite appropriate as long as chest, arms and legs are covered.
In the prayer area (carpeted area), female visitors are asked to cover their heads as a show of respect to the sacred place of worship and other worshippers.
