File:Main Building, Villa Maria College, Cheektowaga, New York - 20211130.jpg

English: As seen in November 2021, the Main Building is, indeed, the main building on the campus of Villa Maria College in 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 began in 1961 on the college's 22-acre campus in the Pine Hill area of town, with the facilities dedicated three years later. With its predominant sleek lines, boxy forms, and repetitive fenestration oriented in horizontal rows, the building is an example of the Modernism that by the mid-1960s was firmly entrenched on the architectural scene, but in the fine detailing around the entrances you see 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. The relief sculptures in the tympanum above the main entrance, depicting the Blessed Mother on the Seat of Wisdom flanked by a stylized Alpha and Omega, are the work of Jozef Mazur, while the building itself was designed by local architect Joseph E. Fronczak.