The Toro Company is an American manufacturer of lawn equipment that, since 1962, has made its home in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, MN. In order to expand product lines and upgrade their research and development capabilities, Toro engaged LEO A DALY to plan and design a phased renovation and expansion that would increase Toro’s ability to innovate, and gives them a new front-door that reflects its brand and values.
Phase 1, which completed construction in the summer of 2014, created a new corporate office building and new entrance to the campus. This 75,000 square-foot building will allow engineering departments to immediately expand and address the demands of new equipment. Phase 2 will renovate the existing 399,000 square-foot Product Development Laboratory and Product Evaluation Department.
The project explores the typology and typography of a corporate campus that supports and connects Toro products to the landscapes. ‘Toro Park’ is both a testing ground and a demonstration landscape. Buildings are engaged within this environment. Optimal building orientation, views, and maximum daylight harvesting are determinants for positioning. Shed/galleries –like ‘els’ from rural farmsteads – are deployed to feature products and directly place them in the ‘park’. Physical connections are designed via large movable window-wall sections in the shed/galleries to allow machines and people to move between environments.
The spaces allow views outward but are slightly mirrored on the exterior to reflect back the grounds, engaging multiple readings and adding new dimensions to the landscape. The tectonic of the project finds its roots conceptually through an understanding of the engineering, manufacture, and function found in all Toro products. The dialectic of protective shell covering the machine is an iconic signature for Toro’s re-emerging campus within Toro Park.
The reinvented Toro campus celebrates the continuum between Toro, its users, and the environment they shape with their products. The headquarters building’s weathering-steel shell recalls the distinctive red casing of a Toro mower. Surrounding it, the landscape has been transformed into a living testing ground for Toro’s equipment. A green roof system doubles as a testing ground and showscase for Toro’s irrigation products. The landscaped grounds provide a variety of surfaces where their mowing equipment can be tested and shown. At the border between indoor and outdoor, connecting spaces bespeak Toro’s relationship to nature, and accommodate the easy movement of their largest products in and out of the building.
Toro leadership wished for this project to meet not only current product line needs but also to anticipate future demands through the creation of a flexible facility-organization and structure. The LEO A DALY team worked closely with Toro to develop a strategy and design that will accomplish all of these goals under a fast-track time line. At the project’s core is the configuration of the various components together in a way that assures functional efficiency, establishes long-term flexibility, and minimizes operational interruptions through the construction phases.
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