San Ramon's Dougherty Station Community Center revealed a new look this week, following a months-long closure to accommodate renovations that are now open to the public, and kicking off the building's planned future as a hub for artistic expression.

City and community leaders gathered at the freshly renovated building at 17011 Bollinger Canyon Road on Monday to mark the grand opening and conduct a ribbon cutting ceremony marking the reopening of the center and its new offerings.

"This was a renovation project to take it from what was just a community center into this art center," said Kathi Heimann, director of parks and community services for the city. "It came up in all these community meetings that we had this need for an art center."

Heimann said that when it came time for renovations on the building that was first opened in 2005, she and other city leaders decided to take advantage of the opportunity to reimagine the community center.

"We said OK, this is our moment -- let's make this into an arts center," Heimann said.

The renovated building -- now under the moniker Dougherty Station Community Arts Center as of its reopening -- features an updated lobby that now serves as an art gallery, with more work on display in a hallway gallery and another gallery space dedicated to student artwork.

The updated center also now hosts a full-sized dance studio and theater space -- both of which existed prior to the renovations, but with their limitations.

Heimann noted that the previous dance studio had been extremely small, without sufficient room for fully grown dancers to move across the floor.

"What we were able to do was knock out a wall between the dance studio and a classroom and turn it into a big, beautiful, glorious dance studio now," Heimann said.

While the 90-seat Front Box Theater was already in place before the renovations, Heimann said that renovations included adding a crucial element to it that had previously been lacking -- a green room for performers.

"We repurposed an office area and created a beautiful green room for them, so now they have a spot to get ready," Heimann said.

Other new elements include two full art studios, a music room, and a number of former office spaces that have been turned into practice rooms for artists and musicians -- two music studios and six creative studios available for personal use.

More information on new programming and facilities updates at Dougherty Station is available at sanramon.ca.gov.