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The new building is located on St James' Boulevard, on the edge of Graingertown in central Newcastle, close to a converted warehouse that had served as Dance City's previous home. The existing building was unwelcoming for first-time users and the studio spaces were cramped and leaking. While a significant proportion of Newcastle residents knew of the organisation, many did not know its whereabouts.

The new building is organised around a generous light-filled circulation space, which serves as its social and creative heart. Circulation routes around different parts of the building are designed to overlap and encourage chance meetings. It also forms the 'foyer' to the dance theatre and can be used for informal performances, with large timber-lined steps at ground level forming seats for an impromptu audience.

The building's external appearance reflects the nature of the two different types of construction. The theatre and main dance studios are built in an engineering brick. In the studios the brick is painted white to increase light reflectance while elsewhere exposed dark brick provides excellent hard-wearing, low maintenance, thermally absorbent surfaces. The framed construction of the administration block uses a double glazed curtain walling system with a random pattern of ceramic colour coatings, to form a light and contrasting treatment to the more solid load bearing parts of the building.