photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The Islamic Center of Lawrence has filed plans to demolish a portion of its building — the smaller portion to the left of the frame — and replace it with a more traditional mosque structure for worship

On many a basketball game day in Lawrence, the building at the southwest corner of 19th Street and Naismith Drive has been recognized as a great parking spot for busy Allen Fieldhouse, just a couple of blocks away.

But it is not always recognized for what it is — the Islamic Center of Lawrence. After all, the building is a fairly standard red brick structure that doesn’t have many hints of an Islamic mosque.

That soon may change. The Islamic Center has filed plans with Lawrence City Hall to demolish a portion of the existing building and construct a new worship hall that will prominently feature a dome, which is a traditional architectural element of mosques around the world.

“We wanted a redesign to reflect more of an Islamic culture,” Lahsen Jakmouj, social coordinator for the Islamic Center, told me.

He said many members of the center have asked why the center doesn’t have a dome. He said the center has members from all over the world — the Middle East, Africa, Asia and elsewhere — and domes atop mosques are common everywhere.

“They really identify the buildings with domes,” he said.

The reason the Lawrence center doesn’t have one isn’t for a lack of trying. The center had planned for a major building project years ago, and then the pandemic struck. Momentum for the project slowed, but it is now full speed ahead with the planning. The center has filed plans with City Hall, and is seeking site plan approval for the project.

The site — which was a church before the Islamic Center bought the property in the late 1990s — is already properly zoned for the project. The site plan approval is focused on technical design and code issues.

The project won’t change the overall size of the building much, and also won’t cut into the significant parking lot, which the center does sell spaces in during KU basketball games. Instead, the project basically will replace the existing worship area of the building, which is the portion of the structure near the grass lawn that faces the 19th and Naismith intersection.

That location will ensure the new worship hall is very visible to people passing by, which Jakmouj said is a benefit.

“Just passing by, people will notice that we are not a usual building,” Jakmouj said, citing the dome and other design elements of the new structure. “People can’t help but ask ‘what is that?’ Now it will be clear that this is the Islamic Center.”

Jakmouj said that will please members of the center, because the center is proud to be in Lawrence. As reports of Islamophobia have grown in various locations across the country as the war in Gaza has unfolded, Jakmouj told me Lawrence continues to be a very welcoming place for people of the Islamic faith.

“The Lawrence community is very supportive,” he said. “Lawrence has been a very exemplary town compared to the rest of the counties in Kansas. Lawrence is very open, liberal and embracing of minorities from other walks of life.”

Jakmouj noted that the Islamic Center has good neighborly relations with the KU Chabad House, which is a Jewish student organization that is just a couple of blocks east of the center. As the Journal-World reported in December, Chabad House is undertaking a complete reconstruction of its center on 19th Street.

Jakmouj said the center’s relations with other organizations in Lawrence also are good.

“We don’t see that extremism from other groups like you see in the South or elsewhere,” Jakmouj said. “I just came back from a trip in Charleston, South Carolina, and you cannot help but see that little abrasive social fabric that is there. It is a little different. I’m glad I’m in Lawrence.”

As for the expansion project, Jakmouj said the center would start construction on it soon after receiving city approvals. However, he said it likely is still a couple of years before the project would be complete. He said the center will continue to operate out of its current location while construction is underway. A portion of the building that houses fellowship space, classrooms and offices will not be demolished. He said the center will be able to hold worship services in that part of the building during the interim period.

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In other notes from around town, there is a different property on the edge of the KU campus that also is seeking to expand. This one is a historic fraternity.

The Kansas Sigma Nu house has filed plans with the city for an approximately 1,200-square-foot expansion of its house at 1501 Sigma Nu Place. If you are having a hard time picturing the location, it is along Emery Road, northwest of KU’s main campus. If that still doesn’t ring a bell, maybe you will recall it used to be Kansas Gov. Walter R. Stubbs’ house.

No, that doesn’t help? Well that was back in 1907. The governor built the stately home on 28 acres of hilltop property in Lawrence. In fact, the site used to house a semi-famous Dutch windmill that has been mentioned several times in Lawrence history books. Sigma Nu has owned the property and used it as a fraternity house since 1922, according to a history on the fraternity’s website.

The history lesson might be more interesting than the details I have to share on the expansion project. The plans filed with the city label it a slight expansion of space on the southwest corner of the existing home. It looks like a fair amount of space will be devoted to a new porch area, and some additional interior space that isn’t labeled on the plan. The plan doesn’t show any significant expansion of parking lots or other such structures on the site.

The project must win site plan approval from city planners before it can proceed.