I think the developers did a great job! The Tower has become something different. What would we be discussing if it had remained in the snow? Threads like "Why is the Tower still the same?" or "The developers were too lazy to work on the academy's image" would probably have appeared. But the fact that the developers have transformed the mage race so much that, for the first time in the series' history, I like it much more than all the others is really cool. Here are a few thoughts on this:

1) There wasn't an "Eastern" race before. The Greeks were there – for example, the Dungeon had about 50% of its units from Greek mythology. Well, the developers realized that it would be good to use Eastern mythology (within reasonable limits, remember the "Chinese" dragon king from Heroes 4, the Whirlwind of War?), and they did a great job!
2) There will be snow. Where else would you put the Barbarians? In the steppes too? They wouldn't get along with the mages there. But snow is the perfect place for them; it could be styled in a Scandinavian way, and there were similar suggestions on the forum.
3) About the lion Boniface – EXCELLENT! Very accurately observed. The hairstyle is exactly the same. And the angle of refraction of the lower limbs.

In general, love the academy as it is =) Seeing it in the snow again would be... well, perhaps just boring...