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The estate of Jack Pruellage has left Saint Louis University a gift of $1.1 million. Pruellage was chairman of the school’s board of trustees and chairman of Lewis, Rice & Fingersh LC before he passed away at the age of 71 back in May. Pruellage made sure the gift would go to the school not long before he passed away and he even requested that the gift be used to transform the 100 N. Tucker building in downtown St. Louis. He wants the building to be furnished for a state-of-the-art educational facility for Saint Louis University’s School of Law.
The plan to move the school’s law school to downtown St. Louis was announced in January. The building where the law school will be housed was donated to Saint Louis University earlier in 2012 by Scott Properties owner Joe Scott and wife, Loretta.
“Jack felt very strongly that locating our law school in the heart of the city’s legal community would benefit our students for generations to come,” SLU President Lawrence Biondi said in a statement.
Pruellage was a graduate of Saint Louis University and served on the school’s board of trustees for almost 15 years. Pruellage has also been credited with the majority of the university’s recent progress by Biondi. The main office of Lewis, Rice and Fingersh are just blocks from the new home for the Saint Louis University law school. Pruellage worked all 42 years of his legal career at the law firm, where he served for 22 years as a chairman. Pruellage also asked that any gift donated to the university be used for the law school project.
“It was Jack’s hope that his leadership gift would inspire others to support this very historic move,” Biondi said.
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The architect and designer for the law school project, The Lawrence Group, released renderings of the building earlier in May. The building is only 11 floors but a 12th floor will be added during the construction. The builder, Clayco Inc., is scheduled to begin construction this October and the move date for the law school is slated for August 2013. The building was built in 1964 but there were only a handful of challenges met by the construction crew in the early stages of demolition. Those challenges included removing columns and updating the HVAC systems and the plumbing throughout the building.
“We want the building to be recognized as a university building and we wanted it to be easy to find,” Michael Schnaare said. Schnaare is the leader of the project and the principal at The Lawrence Group.
