Mystic — A contractor on Monday is scheduled to begin hoisting into place the 105-foot-long beams that will be used to form Mystic Seaport’s dramatic new $11.5 million Thompson Exhibit building along Route 27.

Work has been going on since last winter, beginning with the demolition of the G.W. Blunt White Library building and construction of the foundation for the 14,000-square-foot exhibit building.

The building will have 5,000 square feet of exhibit space, a reception lobby, bathrooms, coat room, space for museum staff, a large mechanical room for the equipment to protect the exhibits and new space overlooking the Mystic River for the Munson Room, which will be relocated from the Stillman Building. A small park will separate the building from Route 27.

The building, which is designed to evoke feelings of the ribs of a ship and its masts, a curling wave and a wharf, is slated to open in the summer or early fall of 2016. The museum has said the exhibit building will play a major role in its plan to make itself more of a year-round destination as it will be able to attract and accommodate traveling exhibits from museums around the world.