The new Loker Commons opens today, featuring a newsstand, an ATM, telephones and several networked computers.

The commons will serve as gathering spot for the Harvard community, featuring informal eating and socializing areas.

The commons and its restaurants, located on the lower level of Memorial Hall, will be open on a flexible schedule from now through December 19 so Harvard Dining Services and the Memorial Hall management team can prepare the commons for operations, according to a press release.

For the rest of December, the commons will be open from 8 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. on Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. During reading and exam period, Loker Commons will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. every day.

Shuttle bus service has been extended to coincide with the Loker Commons hours.

Four restaurants in the commons will also be open on a flexible schedule for the rest of the month. A serving area on the north side of the commons will offer pizza, southwestern cuisine and sweets. A coffeehouse at the cast end will offer sandwiches, soups, desserts and coffee.

"We did a dry run yesterday and fed a lot of people to get all the bugs out," said Mike P. Berry, the manager of Dining Services.

But Berry called the opening a "soft opening," saying that "all the hoopla around it will be the week of January 3."

The commons' official grand opening is set for Thursday, January 4 and will feature entertainment, a slide show of the building's history and the restoration effort, and tours of the new Annenberg Dining Hall, according to the release.

Although the commons are underground, a tour last month revealed that the spaces are bright and airy. Light filters into the seating area through stencils cut out of a floor-to-ceiling wood panel at the entrance to the commons.

"The primary feature in this space is light," Associate Dean for Physical Resources and Planning David A. Zewinski '76 said last month.

But the most notable elements of the commons are a lighted message board which runs the length of the commons and an electronic billboard on the back wall.

Annenberg Hall, the first-year dining hall on the first floor of Memorial Hall, will open for dinner on January 28. Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 and Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth S. Nathans will host a reception for first-years only on February 8 to celebrate the opening of the new dining hall.

The money to renovate Loker Commons was given to the University by Katherine Bogdanovich Loker