Academic Center

The Ellicott Complex, nicknamed the Emerald City, is a 38-building mega-structure consisting of dormitories, dining facilities, including the student favorite C3, academic departments, administrative offices and classrooms, lecture halls and a 260 seat theatre. It was originally designed after the British university system to house 3,200 students (as well as resident faculty) across six quads.

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.