The master plan calls for renovating the Catherine Dower Performing & Fine Arts Center and constructing a new addition to relocate the Black Box Theater and related theater arts functions out of Ely Campus Center. The project will add an elevator to make the second floor accessible, renovate restrooms and classrooms for accessibility and updated finishes, and build a new wing with a black box theater, fly space, scenery workshop, green room, dressing rooms, and support spaces, along with site work to connect to the campus ring road and Campus Green. This project consolidates visual and performing arts into a single arts district on campus and addresses a facility rated as having poor accessibility and deferred maintenance in recent assessments.With no procurement schedule or design firm named beyond the master planners, this represents an upcoming opportunity for architects, theater planners, acousticians, and contractors specializing in arts facilities to support program development, phasing, and eventual design‑build or CM at‑risk procurements.

The project enables reprogramming of space in Ely Campus Center for student‑focused functions by moving theater arts out; it also responds to an ADA assessment noting significant accessibility issues at Dower.