CHICAGO.- The Field Museum will unveil a new entry pavilion and a significant underground addition at a grand opening ceremony today at the famed Chicago institution, said the designers of the project, architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM).

The new 5,700 square foot East entry will give the museum an entry at ground level and improve access and the "sense of arrival" for the disabled, school groups and other visitors. The project also includes the construction beneath the museum of a two-level 200,000 square foot center for the collections and research department.

Designed by SOM Consulting Design Partner Adrian D. Smith and Associate Partner Peter Van Vechten, the entry pavilion is designed to fit into the terrace walls that surround the museum and to have no impact on the national landmark status of the 84-year-old edifice. The marble cladding was cut and finished by hand-just as it was in the building's original construction. The pavilion extends from the museum and features skylight rendered in a contemporary, structurally-expressive form.

"We did not want to disrupt the character of the neo-classical terrace walls," Smith said. "The goal was to create a pavilion that is a subtle, distinguished and elegant new entrance to this world-class institution."

SOM Managing Partner Richard F. Tomlinson II said the pavilion was designed to harmonize with the city's Museum Campus.

"Both functionally and visually, the pavilion connects the Field to the other buildings on the museum campus," said SOM Managing Partner Richard F. Tomlinson II said.

A skylight built without mullions -- a first in Chicago -- is supported by a state-of-the-art cable-bow truss system to introduce natural daylight into the museum space. The pavilion's interior materials were designed and detailed to be compatible with those found within grand spaces within the museum such as the Stanley Field Hall.

The two-level underground Collections Resource Center-located beneath the pavilion and below the south and east sides of the museum-will provide onsite research and archival quality space for a number of the museum's 21 million objects and the professionals who curate them. Portions of the artifacts and personnel had been housed in areas originally intended for public use. The artifacts and personnel had been housed in the museum's public areas and mezzanine. The new center returns these areas to exhibit space and the public while providing expansion space for the collection's growth.

Founded in 1936, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP is one of the world's leading architecture, urban design, engineering and interior architecture firms. SOM has designed many of the world's most distinctive buildings including the Sears Tower and John Hancock Center in Chicago; and Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, and Burj Dubai, a 2000+ foot tower under construction in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.