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Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Chapel Our lady Seat of Wisdom Chapel is the crown jewel in the diadem of buildings which comprise the Marist College campus.
Acting as contractor and using simple building techniques,Brother Nilus built the chapel with Marist Brothers' labor. Poured reinforced concrete abutments and walls buttress laminated wood beams supporting the roof.
Depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary was a professional model, Rita Hunt. She and her husband were friends of Brother Nilus and she did the work gratis. In a subsequent photo of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the Apostles, taken for the adjacent study hall, the photographer used the same model along with some Marist Brothers construction workers as the apostles.The photographic session had to be repeated because one of the Marist apostles had forgotten to take off his wrist watch! Unfortunately, over the years, the images faded through the bleaching action of the sun.
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When
the chapel was built in 1953, it's circular design was one of the
first for a Catholic church in the United States. The altar dominates
the center with the congregation intimately flowing completely around
it. It was not until the Second Vatican Council in 1965 that churches
began to move their altars into a similar relationship with their
parishioners.
Instead
of stained glass windows, Brother Nilus borrowed an idea of Eastman
Kodak that he had seen displayed in Grand Central Station. He lined
the upper inner perimeter of the chapel with photographic images
of the Virgin Mary. On sheets of heavy plastic he embedded the images
of a model portraying the Madonna with accompanying quotes from
scripture. The plastic sheets were suspended on springs which compensated
for the expansion from the sunlight and the contraction during the
night. 
