The Saint Louis University School of Law is in the early stages of fundraising to extensively renovate and expand its current facilities on Lindell Boulevard.
The Law School hopes to raise about $40 million to support the construction, which Law School Dean Jeffrey E. Lewis expects to begin within two to three years. Lewis said he has “had the renovations in mind” since he first came to SLU in 1999. Since then, the law school has expanded to more than 900 students and supports several different concentrations and certificates, including a Health Law Program ranked first in the nation last year by U.S. News and World Report.
“Our current facilities are good, but they are not up to the quality of people in our program,” Lewis said. “With the new School of Law, we will have what we need to realize all of our potential.”
Lewis and a committee of law school faculty and staff met for a year and planned changes after assessing the needs and visions of the law school. They then handed their ideas over to the Lawrence Group, an architectural firm in St. Louis.
The first step of the expansion will be a large common area and then a new student building toward the west side of the current law school on Lindell Boulevard.
Subsequent changes include larger offices, completely renovated old classrooms, new U-shaped classrooms (to better facilitate the law school’s Socratic teaching method) and a more accessible and interactive law library, Lewis said.
While the renovations encompass several different aspects of the law school’s facilities, all focus on adding more space to create a better environment for faculty and students.
Lewis said he expects the new space to provide vastly improved studying areas, as well as opportunities for an increasing number of “blossoming student organizations.”
Renovations will take place on the interior and exterior of the Law School.
Just several yards from the spires and stones of the John Cook School of Business, the Law School plans to adopt a similar “university gothic” architectural style.
The new look is a far cry from its current appearance, dating from the early ’80s and mid-’90s.
Renovations, both inside and out, are expected to last 41 months from start to finish.
Founded in 1843 as the first law school west of the Mississippi River, SLU’s School of Law has been educating students for more than 150 years.
Lewis thinks the school’s plans for renovation offer not just an opportunity to “secure the school’s future,” but provide the Law School with “a facility that allows our community to continue to thrive for the next 100 years.”
