October 14, 2004 – May 2, 2005
Chicago Architecture Foundation
Brininstool + Lynch: Brad Lynch, principal; Joanna Dabek; David Brininstool, principal; Kevin Southard; Pablo Diaz; Daniel Martus;
Christine Marsal Brandl.
Photographed on the Chicago Avenue El platform, outside of the firm's office
Brininstool + Lynch
In designing the Racine Art Museum, architect Brad Lynch was conscious of the city's architectural history and the inescapable presence of Frank Lloyd Wright's Wingspread and Johnson Administration Building. Lynch grew up in Racine, after all, just down the street from Karen Johnson Boyd's own Wright-designed home, and his first project was the restoration of Wright's earliest Usonian house, in Madison, Wisconsin.
Lynch pointedly avoided Wright's Prairie Style at RAM. He built instead upon the European modernist tradition. The building's most prominent feature—its abstract, back-lit acrylic façade—serves literally and symbolically as a beacon for downtown Racine's cultural and economic redevelopment. The interior spaces, with their white walls and rectilinear geometries, defer to a dynamic collection of contemporary American craft.
I designed the galleries for someone like John McQueen, a fiber artist. He is so inventive and he stretches the limits of his medium. I think we made the space flexible enough for someone like him to work in. If we were dealing with paintings or modernist sculpture, it would be a whole different scenario in terms of display. It was real joy to see the way the building fulfilled the need to house art.
I also think that one of the really fulfilling things was to see people's reactions. The building really did change the community. That was obvious not only at the opening, but when I have stopped back at the museum. People I have never met will come up and shake my hand and say, “I can't believe how you've changed this town.” And I think, “Really?”—Brad Lynch