RAM's bold new architecture is the result of a renovation of several existing structures with portions built as long ago as the late 1800s. Award winning Chicago-based architects Brininstool + Lynch reinvented the downtown Racine, Wisconsin space as a 46,000 square foot museum designed to house RAM's significant contemporary craft collection. The RAM facility includes exhibition galleries, a sculpture courtyard, a museum store, as well as an art library and research center.

Located in the home of Frank Lloyd Wright's SC Johnson Administration Building, the RAM building carries on Racine's tradition of innovative architectural design. Racine's Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts commissioned Brininstool + Lynch to build a museum that was large enough to support its growing permanent collection.

The commission began with a complex structure that had already been renovated seven times. To unify the building, Brininstool + Lynch devised what has become the project's defining feature: a continuous wrap of translucent acrylic panels. At night, the panels are lit from behind to create a luminous, glowing facade.

In RAM's design, Brininstool + Lynch created warm and welcoming spaces for the display of art by combining glass and concrete with materials such as rubber and reconstituted ash. On the first floor, public spaces filled with natural light and outdoor views sit side-by-side with darkened galleries that protect environmentally sensitive objects. Second story galleries crowned with skylights soar eighteen feet in height. Large windows on the street level encourage pedestrians to respond to the artists' work on display.

Brininstool + Lynch has completed projects ranging from custom residences to skyscrapers throughout North America, including Perimeter Gallery's Chicago and New York locations, The Art Institute of Chicago's Gallery 24, offices and labs for a group of theoretical physicists and a 36-story, mixed use tower in Chicago. The firm’s work has been published internationally and recognized with numerous awards, including 11 from the American Institute of Architects and the American Architecture Award for the Racine Art Museum.