PROJECT INFORMATION

The town of Ave Maria, Ave Maria University, and this community church were all founded by Tom Monaghan, who is also the founder of Domino’s Pizza. This 27,000 square foot church is the physical center of the community and was originally built in 2007 as an oratory owned by the University. In 2017, the Diocese of Venice purchased the oratory from Ave Maria University in order to officially establish it as a parish recognized by the bishop. The parish administrator said the architecture of the sanctuary was heavily influenced by both traditional religious design elements and the “legacy” of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The high ceilings, long nave, and fixed-structure pews are both traditional and meant to represent the spiritual journey of the community

PROJECT SCOPE

MG McGrath fabricated and installed the various meal roofing systems on the Ave Maria Church/Oratory. The main sides of the roof feature 34,000 square feet of Dorian Grey standing seam panels fabricated into our own custom D-Lock panel system with .090 stretch formed architectural faux battens. The panels vary in length and are joined with transverse seams that mirror the crossing structural steel members inside the building. Our team added eight exposed structural steel buttress’ that penetrate the roof in several places and are highlighted by stretch formed radius’ .125” thick custom painted aluminum plate panels. The rear elliptical dome-shaped roof of the church is clad with our own custom diamond-shaped H-Seam shingles