Local architects Dick Bundy and David Thompson designed the project, which kicks off a 10-year strategic plan for the 126-year-old museum. The new wing opens Friday. All contractors on the project are locally based firms, including its general, San Diego-based Nineteman Construction.

The 90,000-sf expansion increases the museum's size one-and-a-half times, adding a grand atrium, a research library and multimedia theater. A design team spent two years studying the project, and the San Diego Convention Center is the only facility in the city with larger corporate meeting space.

The centerpiece of the expansion is the new multimedia theater with a 48-foot by 36-foot movie screen. The museum is the only facility in San Diego with onsite labs open to the public. The Biodiversity Research Center of California logs and organizes more than 7.5 million specimens there.