The design for the Arts and Transit Neighborhood is intended to establish new and enhanced academic, cultural and retail spaces for both the University and local communities as well as to improve the infrastructure in the area and to provide access to additional transportation services.

University planning for the Arts and Transit Neighborhood design will be guided by the following principles:

• Create a neighborhood of additional academic, performance and retail spaces to serve creative and performing arts program.
• Create an attractive space for students and local residents patronizing the new facilities (including new restaurant and cafe space), as well as patrons of McCarter and Berlind theaters and riders of the Dinky.
• Provide increased opportunities for both the community and campus to participate in, and to benefit from, new cultural and retail resources.
• Reconfigure the Alexander Street and University Place intersection and improve infrastructure in the area: traffic circulation, parking and landscaping.
• Preserve the Dinky service and provide additional services for riders.
• Preserve sufficient flexibility to accommodate community jitney service and future mass transit technology.
• Improve the Alexander Street and University Place corridor as a "gateway" to the community and the campus.

The model above shows the proposed three-sided complex that would be the initial academic buildings in the Arts and Transit Neighborhood.