Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

Ottawa, 26 May 2010 — Mawlana Hazar Imam arrived in Ottawa this afternoon, marking the start of a two-day visit to Canada during which he will participate in the Foundation Ceremony of the Ismaili Centre, the first-ever Aga Khan Museum for Islamic Art and Culture, and the park where they will be situated in Toronto’s Don Mills neighbourhood.

A $300 million Ismaili project on Wynford Drive will get underway with a ground breaking Friday, May 28.

The Aga Khan, the 49th hereditary imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims and founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, will be on hand for the ceremony.

Slated for completion in 2013, the 17-acre development in the Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue area will be made up of the Ismaili Centre Toronto, the Aga Khan Museum and a park.

The artistic pieces have graced the homes of Mughal emperors, adorned the gardens of Persian palaces and educated the masses of the Muslim world.

Soon, over 1,000 years of Islamic art and culture will find a permanent home in Toronto.

The groundbreaking for the Aga Khan Museum, the first in North America solely devoted to Islamic art, will take place on Friday near Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Ave. E. The museum will be built alongside an Ismaili centre and park on a 7-hectare site at 49 Wynford Dr.

The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims, will put a shovel in the ground Friday, marking the start of construction of a $300-million development in the Don Mills Rd.-Eglinton Ave. area.

Plans call for the building of a museum named after the Aga Khan, an Ismaili Centre and the creation of a park. The massive project is slated for completion by 2013.

There is an interesting debate brewing over a site in the historic suburb of Toronto's Don Mills: should we save a modernist building and compromise the designs of two internationally known architects, or should we allow these architects to disseminate global culture unencumbered by a '60s building?