Work has progressed on the new Trout Museum of Art building on College Avenue in Appleton. July 7, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Progress being made at the new home of the Trout Museum of Art.
Ashley Acker, marketing manager with the Trout, said the new building is a massive step up.
“It’s a purpose-built museum that is created as a museum. Our last store, or last building, was built as a furniture store in 1922. So you can imagine, the humidity control and the safety of the artwork and the height of the walls was all a hindrance to us, even though we really loved that building. This is just opening up opportunities for classes, educational programs and exhibits,” Acker explained.
Trout employees have been given multiple tours of the new building to check in on the progress. Acker said it’s been quite an experience seeing it all grow.
“It is crazy to see how it’s come together, even in the last few weeks,” she said.
While the first and second floors will serve as space for the Trout Museum of Art and Lawrence University, respectively, the building’s third and fourth floors will serve as both residential and student housing. That’s according to Jonathan Ballmer with The Boldt Company, which is constructing the building.
“They will start out as market-rate apartments, but as the Lawrence population flexes, they have the ability to shift those into student housing at a given time,” said Ballmer.
Those apartments — which were built in a new “modular” format, constructed remotely and then brought to Appleton — are already finished.
Ballmer says it saved an immense amount of time.
“Last fall, as we had erected the building, we erected the first two floors, and then within seven days, we had erected the third and fourth floor,” he said. “On this project alone, we saved about eight months in the overall duration of the project by being able to have those units modularized.”
Boldt said its goal is to minimize the impact made on residents from long-winded construction projects.
The building which used to house the Trout Museum of Art will become a family resource center. First 5 Fox Valley is taking over the space and renovating it for the next year.
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