Michael Rose continues his quixotic crusade against Ave Maria University’s proposed campus architecture. He has made his feelings about the “crystal” cathedral and Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired buildings well known. Now he’s publicizing the work of three Notre Dame architecture students who were coincidentally designing the AMU campus as part of their senior thesis project.
I have to admit that I like the designs, mostly because they appeal to my own traditional sensibilities and because they seem to fit the Florida location better. The chapel, in particular, reminds me of the chapel being built at California’s Thomas Aquinas College. That’s no coincidence since the man who designed that is Duncan Stroik, one of the founders of the curriculum in classical architecture at UND. (I love his churches. I wish I could worship in one every week.)
We’ll have to see whether the AMU leaders take the criticism to heart and go back to drawing board.
For me, a church should feel like God’s home, and should exalt ones soul…
Egad! Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in FLORIDA? They’re designed for the prairies where we have infinite flat horizons.
No contest.
The undergrads have beat the House of Windex, hands down.
And they fit the location. The hothouse dos not.