After World War I, Pope Benedict XV and then his successor, Pope Pius XI, worked to create a new site for the university that would be better suited to its needs; it was still operating in Palazzo Gabrielli-Borromeo. Benedict XV was able to acquire an area at the base of Quirinal Hill, adjacent to another school under the Jesuits, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, or "Biblicum", which had been founded in 1909. Pius XI laid the first stone of the new seat of the university on 27 December 1924. Designed by architect Giulio Barluzzi in Neoclassical style, it was completed by 1930.