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A New Look for all the Campuses
In addition to the significant improvements Father Lawrence Biondi has made to the University’s academic and financial infrastructure, probably the most noticeable improvement to the outside observer has been the physical renovation of the campuses. These changes in appearance are really visible expressions of the strides Saint Louis University is making in academics, research and community service. During the more than ten years of Father Biondi’s presidency, the University has acquired more than 40 acres of property and purchased or built more than 30 buildings.
 
On both the Frost and Health Sciences Center campuses, beautiful tree lined and flowered pedestrian malls have replaced the asphalt of city streets and parking lots. Where at one time it was difficult to know just where the Saint Louis University campus began and ended, the campus boundaries are now marked with distinctive wrought-iron gates and fences. Uniform brick and concrete pillars with black wrought-iron archways tie all parts of each campus, and the three campuses themselves, into a unified whole. Cream-colored tiles decorated with the University’s logo, a stylized fleur-de-lis, adorn the pillars and add strength to the University’s identity. Elegant bronze statuary adds additional beauty to campuses, that only a few years earlier had been virtual aesthetic wastelands.
  
All of these physical improvements are testimony to the University’s commitment to the city of St. Louis, in particular to the revival of the midtown area.
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Today, as Saint Louis University approaches the conclusion of its second century, the University’s faculty, staff and students remain committed to the ideals of education, service and leadership in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition that they have upheld since 1818. Father Lawrence Biondi has articulated his vision "to establish and maintain Saint Louis University as the finest Catholic university in the United States." Thanks to dynamic and re-invigorated academic programs, the construction of state-of-the-art facilities and a continued dedication to the greater community, Saint Louis University is surely on its way to turning Father Biondi’s vision into reality.