File:Farber Hall, University at Buffalo South Campus, Buffalo, New York - 20230311.jpg

English: A view of Farber Hall on the South Campus of the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, as seen in March 2023. A work of local architects James, Meadows & Howard, Farber was completed in 1953 as the first building on the South Campus to be constructed outside of the Georgian-style axial plan that had been laid out in 1930 by predecessor firm Edward B. Green & Son and built out over the ensuing decades. In its design, we see a International Style substrate overlaid with stylized Classical elements in a manner that typifies the mid-scale institutional architecture of the era and, arguably, also presages the New Formalist school that would emerge soon after: note the flat roof, repetitive forms, and characteristic horizontal bands of windows but also the monumental engaged pillars and entablatures that frame the main entrance and are repeated on the sides of the lateral wings. The reliefs on the spandrel panels within these mock temple fronts, with their simple geometric motifs, blend the two aesthetics ably. Originally named for university benefactor Samuel P. Capen (the name Capen Hall was repurposed in 1977 for a newly christened building on the North Campus), it now bears the moniker of Dr. Sidney Farber, a renowned pediatric pathologist who helped found UB's Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program for innovating new cancer treatments. Appropriately enough, the building was constructed as a new home for the university's medical and dental schools, which had earlier been scattered among various rented spaces downtown. Though the main operations of both of those departments have since moved elsewhere, Farber continues serving as classroom space utilized for the study of public health, orthopedics and sports medicine, and other medical disciplines.