Hossein Amanat
Hossein Amanat is an Iranian-Canadian architect. He is best known for being the architect of the Shahyad Tower in Tehran, Iran, the Baháʼí Arc buildings in Haifa, Israel and the House of Worship in Samoa. He has also been designated as the architect of the future Shrine of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.Practice
As a young graduate from the University of Tehran he won a nationwide competition in 1966 to design the Shahyadd Tower, renamed the Azadi Tower in 1979. This first architectural project led to the opportunity to create some of Iran's most distinctive projects with reference to traditional Persian architecture. Amongst them are the initial buildings of the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran., the Persian Heritage Center, the Faculty for Business Management of the Tehran University and the Embassy of Iran in Beijing, China. As a member of the persecuted Baháʼí Faith, Amanat fled the country during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. He is the brother of Abbas Amanat, Professor of History & International Studies at Yale University.
Since moving to Canada in 1980, Hossein Amanat designed the three administrative buildings on the Baháʼí Arc in Haifa, Israel, the Baháʼí House of Worship in Samoa, the Jiang'an Library for the Sichuan University, the media library for the Beijing Broadcasting Institute. He designed religious and cultural centers for the Baháʼí Faith near Dallas, Texas, Seattle and Washington, D.C., several multifamily condominiums in Santa Monica, California, and mixed-use high-rise buildings in San Diego, California and Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
On 7 May 2019 the Universal House of Justice announced Amanat as the architect of the future Shrine of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.Awards
