Completed in 1959, it has been called a "startling, translucent, modernist evocation of an ancient temple, transposed to a Philadelphia suburb by Frank Lloyd Wright".

[citation needed] The building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who accepted the commission in September 1953.

[6] With its steeply inclined walls of translucent corrugated wire glass, it projects skyward like a "luminous Mount Sinai" (Wright's own description).

During the day, the interior is lit by natural light entering through the translucent walls overhead.

Rabbi Mortimer Cohen had requested the main sanctuary be on the second floor to be lit by natural light during the day.