Cooke Hall houses the departments of Biological Sciences and Geology. Cooke contains small classrooms and large lecture halls, as well as laboratories and faculty research offices.

Namesake

Lawyer, financier and civic leader, Walter Platt Cooke was chair of the University Council from 1920 to 1931 and received the Chancellor's Medal in 1926.

In his role as UB Council chair, he was responsible for bringing Samuel Capen to UB and is credited with spurring the development of both the physical campus and the College of Arts and Sciences as a distinct entity. He also led the university through two unprecedented successful endowment campaigns in the 1920s. Earlier, he enjoyed a distinguished diplomatic career, at one point serving as president of a tribunal at the Hague set up to settle reparations disputes in the aftermath of World War I.

Historical research and photographs provided by University Archives.

Building Facts

Primary function: Academic

Tenants: School of Pharmacy, Department of Biology

Architect: Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum, St. Louis

Completion date: September, 1977

Gross square feet: 289,258

Construction cost: $10,760,000