On Monday Bishop Frank Dewane will dedicate the oratory at Ave Maria University.
The first proposal, something of a liturgical greenhouse (Trust me; liturgical progressives don’t build in glass on that scale. It is so square.) has been scaled back in size and partly shifted to stone and steel:
I have to say I’m not impressed with the exterior or computer-generated interior. Steel is a great building material for reinforcing stone and wood. I’m less fond of it for church exterior usage, especially for every view of the building but the one straight-on from the front.
I also confess a curiosity about the long, narrow aspect of the interior. I can appreciate the limited appeal (see: steel) to a traditional architecture. But engineering makes possible an interior expansiveness unknown before the 20th century.
A search for interior images came up empty, except for a computer-generated video on the lower left of the university’s main page. At the bottom of the same page, you can click on a link for the 2PM EDT dedication and see it all unfold.
Meanwhile, if anyone has some interior images in advance, link them in the combox, if you please.
Catholic Sensibility 
When it comes to designs in the modern style or with contemporary influences, I prefer something more angular. This looks like it could be in a James Bond movie where the top opens up and the Domino’s guy’s zeppelin floats out. Seriously, looking at it I think “hangar”, not “church”. It’s just way too bloated at the top.
That front window is (1) cheaply designed, and (2) badly proportioned. The portals are horribly proportioned for a Gothicized front of that magnitude (from Romanesque or Byzantine, they would have had a lot more wiggle room). Right from an autocad instead of an artist.
I like the stone, but a more classic ashlar approach with larger stones and less mortar might have been a better fit with steel on that scale. I guess we can be thankful it wasn’t brick (not that brick is unsuited to massivenesss – the Baltic rim has many massive brick cathedrals and abbey churches of exquisite artistry).
I am perfectly fine with longitudinal spaces – the acid test for me is the acoustic, not the visual, in that regard. I am curious how natural spoken and sung sounds work in this space. The visuals take second place to that consideration.
You realize that it’s supposed to look like a mitre, don’t you?
Or a very bad allusion thereto….
“Bad” is in the eye of the beholder.
Sure. Like all sorts of things. As mitres go, this one is lame.
This is a walk-in version of Tom Monaghan’s Ave Maria logo. The logo was first released in 2000. The building plans were released in 2004. That’s cheesy branding by the man who brought us the Oreo Pizza. More here:
http://avewatch.com/?p=46
As I am aware. I feel for the architects who were saddled with making a chapel suit the brand.
Now that we have suffered through this “design”, check out something a wee bit better:
http://www.chron.com/channel/houstonbelief/photogallery/CoCathedral_of_the_Sacred_Heart.html
And, if your taste runs to the eclectic, as mine does, here is one that is turning out to be better than I expected:
http://ctlcathedral.com/about/center.shtml