Begun in 1994 and first occupied in December 1995, the Somers Family Hall was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, of Chicago.
The building is 105,000 gross square feet in size and forms a quadrangle with McDonnell Hall, Wilson Hall and Bayer Laboratory.
Because the building’s main entrance is a major entryway to the campus from the south, the facade was modeled after the main facade of Brookings Hall, the major entryway from the east.
A major addition to the building was completed in 2006.