The other day my colleague Alison Wellner reported on Newport, Rhode Island's Cliff Walk controversy over the much disputed public right-of-way. Not everything going on in the famed seaside town is controversial, however; on a brighter note, The George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom just celebrated the opening of the new Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Visitors Center (above), which has won praise for great design complementing its historical context. The Loeb Center is located at Touro Synagogue, the oldest functioning synagogue building in the nation. First dedicated in 1763, it was designed by America's first architect, Peter Harrison.

The Institute's mission is to promote awareness of the historic roots of religious liberty in America. In addition to the Loeb Visitors Center, the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom supports educational and scholarship programs for individuals seeking to learn about and discuss the origins and development of American religious liberties. John L. Loeb Jr. is the Chairman of the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom and is the former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark. Through the Institute, he donated both the land and the new Visitors Center building. The Loeb Center further interprets and celebrates the history and architecture of Touro Synagogue, renowned for its beauty.

The Loeb Visitors Center features interactive, multimedia exhibits exploring the meaning and importance of George Washington's 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, the first and clearest presidential expression of support for American's constitutional right to the free exercise of religious belief and the separation of church and state. Writing about the Loeb Center in the Providence Journal, architecture critic David Brussat noted, "It is obviously a classical building, yet it is unlike any other. No work of classicism could possibly depart from canon with greater dignity, hence no building could possibly fit onto a historic street with greater distinction."

Interested in owning the skull of a martyr or the tooth of a saint? Apparently lots of people are, as the market for religious artifacts is booming. It takes a lot of faith to both be in the business of dealing holy relics and in that of buying them, as very few can be proven authentic beyond a shadow of a doubt. Although many newer pieces (i.e. objects touched by the Pope) are easily verified through photographs (when they're available) historical items from ages past are more about believing than anything else. And why else would you spend $975 on a wooden splinter from the True Cross that's so small you need a magnifying glass to see it, if you didn't simply believe?

I've seen a lot of unique diamond cuts but this one is really different. The Trillion Diamond Company has created a Ten Commandments diamond which in which the words of the original Ten Commandments are inscribe on the table facet of the diamond. The words can be read with the aid of a magnifying glass. The company also inscribes sapphires with the same tablet-shaped cut. It comes in Catholic, Protestant and Jewish versions.

[via Diamond Vues]

JUXTAPOSED: Religion is a bookshelf that is tailored to its contents, making it more of an art installation than just a storage device. It is the first in a series of "curated bookshelves," where the books that it is designed to hold are included with it. Given that the shelf is named Religion, it is not surprising that the texts here are religious ones. They include: the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, the Qur'an, Confucius' Analects, the Tao Te Ching, the Torah and the Discourses of the Buddha. The shelf will have a limited production of 50 pieces. Price: $2,500.