Evans Quadrangle

  • Overview

    Facility
    EVANS
    Number
    A143
    Function
    Residen
    Gross Square Feet
    150,002
    Construction Cost
    $1,616,000
    Completed
    April 1974
    Architect
    Davis, Brody, & Associates And Miltstein, Wittek, Davis Associates

  • Namesake

    PORTER.
    Willie R. Evans.

    Joseph Ellicott (1760-1826), the first resident agent of the Holland Land Company, surveyed the Western New York wilderness in 1798. Ellicott was an early advocate of the Erie Canal. He also mapped out a radial-on-grid plan for the city of Buffalo, similar in design to the earlier plan for Washington, D.C.

    Willie R. Evans (1937-2017) was a running back for the University at Buffalo football team in the late 1950s.

    In 1958, the Buffalo Bulls refused an offer to play Florida State University in the Tangerine Bowl because Evans and backup defensive end Mike Wilson were not welcome to play in Orlando because they were black.  After graduation, Evans was drafted by Ralph Wilson for the inaugural season of the American Football League's Buffalo Bills. After his football career, Willie Evans taught in Buffalo area schools for more than 30 years. He coached football, and tennis and swimming, and ran a city parks program for most of that time as well.  He served as an adviser for the university's alumni association.