New England Conservatory, a prestigious center of music performance and education in Boston, wants to make a bold statement with its first major expansion in five decades: a pair of modern glass buildings that would shake up a dated section of the Fenway.

Newly released designs show a striking transformation of the mostly brick campus, adding transparent facades that would put daily music performances on full public display. The centerpiece is an $85 million building on St. Botolph Street that would include student residences, a 200-seat black box theater, a new ­library and dining hall, and jazz and orchestral chambers that would be visible from the sidewalk. A classroom building would be built in a second phase of work.