View of downtown Ave Maria, Florida, USA
A small college town  in southwest Florida was planned with this large Oratory church in the center. The facade of the building displays sculptor Márton Váró's 30-foot-tall (9 m) sculpture of the Annunciation, depicting the Archangel Gabriel greeting the Virgin Mary with the words &quot;Ave Maria&quot; (Hail Mary).  Váró's &quot;Good Shepherd&quot; sculpture is also featured inside the Oratory, also carved in marble from Cave Michelangelo in Carrara, Italy.


This Oratory serves as the home of the Roman Catholic Quasi-parish of Ave Maria Oratory, part of the Diocese of Venice, which serves as the parish for the university and the local residents. One of the oratory's most distinctive characteristics is its steel structure, much of which is exposed internally and externally.


The landmark church received an architectural award from the American Institute of Steel Construction in 2008. Tom Monaghan, Ave Maria founder, has had a significant interest in architecture for more than 50 years and has been one of the world's largest collectors of the works and memorabilia of Frank Lloyd Wright. He drew the oratory's first sketches himself on a tablecloth and then Cannon Design, a Grand Island, N.Y.-based architecture firm, took it from there.


This massive chapel to date is the largest concrete pour in Florida and stands out as the largest structure in the town of Ave Maria. The project is the architectural design of Harry L. Warren, AIA, of Cannon Design, Grand Island, NY. Original plans for this church called for a 185-foot-tall building with 3,300 seats. Due to rising costs the structure was reduced to 104 feet with 1,100 seats and an overall size of 25,755 square feet.
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