English: As seen in November 2021, Villa Maria College's Auditorium faces Pennock Place on the back end of its 22-acre campus in the Pine Hill section of Cheektowaga, New York. Founded as a training institute for Catholic schoolteachers connected with the adjacent convent of the Felician Franciscan Sisters, Villa Maria now offers 18 bachelor's and associate's degree programs in the fields of music, art, liberal arts, and professional studies, and counts a student body of about 500. Construction of a permanent home for the college began in 1961, with the facilities dedicated three years later. With its predominant sleek lines and boxy forms - and especially the enormous stained glass window that dominates the façade, fronted by stone reliefs with geometric latticework and stylized representations of Greek theater masks, a lute, a winged dragon, and other imagery, most likely the work of local artist Jozef Mazur - the auditorium (which itself was designed by local architect Joseph E. Fronczak) is an example of the Modernism that by the mid-1960s was firmly entrenched on the architectural scene. However, many other elements serve as throwbacks to styles that were by then passé: the monumental fluted pillars with stylized capitals recall Art Deco or Streamline Moderne, while the engraved lettering on the entablature above suggests a Tudor influence. In front is a statue of His Holiness, Pope Saint John Paul II, dedicated on April 26, 1987 in honor of his visit to Villa Maria eighteen years previously (when he was still known as Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków).