As mentioned in Edifice Complex, architects commonly use three basic entrance strategies for underground buildings:

• entering through an adjacent aboveground building
• entering through a conventional doorway from a recessed open-air courtyard
• entering a surface-level kiosk that shelters stairs, escalators, and elevators

The third option probably differs most from people’s experience with typical surface buildings. Entrance kiosks or pavilions are intriguing little pavilions that affirm a building’s existence without displaying its bulk. The following examples illustrate important design considerations. (Click on each photo to see an enlargement.)

Subway patrons may be willing to enter the system through a hole in the sidewalk, like this one in Chicago; but students, shoppers, and workers would find this an unappealing entrance to a destination building. A notable exception is the New York Transit Museum, which is located in a historic subway station.

Adding a decorative roof makes a subway entrance more comfortable and attractive, but it still creates the impression of descending into a very utilitarian subterranean space.

Although it is no larger than a subway entrance, this light-adorned, glass kiosk is a more inviting entry structure for the below-ground shopping plaza at Rockefeller Center in New York.

Little glass kiosks that shelter stairways, escalators, or elevators are certainly more inviting than subway-type holes in the pavement. However, their level of sophistication varies. This entrance to the below-ground portion of the Ford City Mall shopping center in Chicago is less elegant than the Rockefeller Center example, but it still conveys the image of an open, airy environment below.

The International Center of Photography in Manhattan makes an elegant statement through the use of minimal colors and contours. Bright colors, a high ceiling, and human activity visible inside the entrance pavilion suggest that the subterranean space below is also spacious and interesting.