With its sunny courtyard and soaring cased windows, this uplifting Italianate brick building is an interfaith landmark. Since 1969, it's been home to the largest Buddhist community outside Asia. Before she built Hearst Castle, California's first licensed woman architect Julia Morgan designed this Italianate brick structure in 1922 to house Emanu-El Sisterhood, a residence for low-income Jewish working women – note ironwork stars of David on the 1st-floor loggia.
Today the Zen Center is open to the public for visits, meditation (see the website for schedule), introduction to Zen practice (8:45 Saturday mornings) and other Zen workshops, and also offers overnight stays by prior arrangement for intensive meditation retreats.
