Visitors to the upper floors of the Muslim community center planned for near ground zero would walk through lofty spaces  for art exhibitions, for contemplation and prayer, for programs on interreligious dialogue, for a 9/11 memorial  as sunlight streams through irregularly shaped windows between white crisscrossing beams.

That is the image presented in the tentative architectural renderings that the planners of the center, called Park51, have been showing at community meetings in recent weeks, and which were revealed to the wider public for the first time last week.

Image The building would be clad in a lattice of starlike shapes that echo traditional Islamic designs in the Middle East. Credit... SOMA Architects

A sketch of the façade shows a latticework of white starlike designs, echoing patterns that can be seen in Islamic architecture and decorative tiles across the Middle East.