Cal State San Bernardino will hold a topping out ceremony Tuesday, Aug. 29, for the university’s new 73,337 square-foot Performing Arts Center, set to open during the 2024-25 academic year. The event will take place on the John M. Pfau Library lawn at 9 a.m. RSVP to the event by Aug. 22 at the Topping Out Ceremony RSVP webpage.

A topping out ceremony is a construction tradition that has been occurring in some fashion for centuries as a celebration of project milestones. Traditionally, the ceremony occurs when the final structural beam is raised into place, completing the building’s frame.

The $126,907,000 Performing Arts Center will provide teaching, rehearsal and performance spaces necessary for a modern performing arts program. Creating a new 500-seat performing arts theater will allow the university to provide a more equitable educational experience that reflects the excellence of the theater arts and music programs at CSUSB.

At completion, the theater will be the only one of its size and quality in the Inland Empire, and will allow more of the area’s community to experience the highly acclaimed productions from CSUSB student-performers and student-musicians. The building will also create a new “front door” to the campus that shows a modern and forward-looking face to visitors and the larger community.

CSUSB has named the center’s foyer the Ellen and Stan Weisser Performing Arts Foyer. Stan Weisser and Ellen Weisser ’68 are longtime supporters of the university whose generous and invaluable gift was the seed donation for the new Performing Arts Center.

The project’s architect is the Los Angeles office of HGA Architects, and the general contractor is the Los Angeles office of Rudolph and Sletten.