(Photo by Nick Blumberg - KJZZ)

Looking down from the highest point in Gammage.

One of the Valley’s premier performing venues is getting a long-awaited face lift. Gammage auditorium will be getting elevators, an improved sound system and much more. Some of the improvements will be most noticed during intermissions.

ASU’s Gammage auditorium will be 50 years old in September. It has hosted touring Broadway plays and musical acts. After all those performances, the iconic building on the Tempe campus is showing its age.

The Golden Gammage Initiative plan announced Tuesday aims to raise more than 16 million dollars for upgrades. That will go for a new sound system, new stage floor, improved accessibility for people with disabilities and elevators for all levels. Restrooms will be expanded which should cut down on long lines. An endowment fund for programming will also be created.

Outside the auditorium, the rose-quartz-crete exterior will be resurfaced to recreate the building’s original look.

Gammage officials said more than $5 million has already been raised. They say construction could begin by 2016.