Residents in a section of Sterling, Va., have a new neighbor: the Northern Virginia Baha'i Center, at the corner of Route 7 and Cardinal Glen Circle.

The new Baha'i center located in the Washington, D.C., metro areaThe center is one of the larger regional Baha'i centers in the country, serving 300 Baha’is in Loudon County and providing an additional gathering place for the more than 3,000 Baha’is in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

But Michael Nabil Izadi, managing director of the new center in Sterling, emphasizes that the center is open to everyone.

“It’s a beacon of unity that will touch hearts,” he says, “no matter what a person’s background.” He says local Baha’is expect the center to be a spiritual magnet for people of all backgrounds.

The new center is 20 years in the making and was well worth the wait, Izadi says. He calls the striking building, built on land that its original owner designated for religious purposes, a “masterpiece -- elegant and dignified, but not extravagant.”

The building was designed by Hossein Amanat, a Baha'i and world-renowned architect who designed several of the buildings surrounding the Baha'i gardens at the Baha'i World Center in Haifa, Israel.

The Northern Virginia Baha'i Center is an 18,000-square-foot, three-level building with a 400-seat auditorium, information center, bookstore/library, kitchen, cafeteria, meeting rooms and classrooms, children’s playroom and youth activities room.