Milwaukee Tool – Red Speed Research and Development Facility

Overlooking a retention pond on a 3.5 acre parcel on the north side of Lisbon Road is a 116,000 square foot, three story building called Red Speed, which serves as a “bookend” to the existing Milwaukee Tool campus. The building accommodates a variety of uses, not limited to the handling of large scale testing on the first floor, smaller more precise testing on the second floor, and professional offices on the third floor.

The building has been designed to complement the material palette of the previous phases of Milwaukee Tool campus through the contemporary use of timeless materials like concrete, steel and glass. More specifically, the inset first floor glazing allows the steel columns to be expressed along with a variety of plane and material changes including acid etched precast wall panels and columns with horizontal reveals, and horizontal ribbon windows. The larger glazed areas with a rhythm of deeper “blades” on the upper floors engage in the architectural metal panel cap, serving to articulate the building scale.

Inside of the building, a heavy emphasis was placed on the ability to give tours to customers and create an environment for the offices on the third floor uninterrupted by noise generated on the other floors. On the first floor, the design team worked closely with the contractor and acoustical engineer to reduce or eliminate most, if not all, of the sounds up to 100 db while exposing the mechanical systems that also needed to be isolated to prevent vibration. The first floor also features a main central concourse for visitors to tour the operations with an overhead structure system that carries the mechanicals. Each room is visible with large, sound controlling glass windows doubling as traversing materials between rooms and from the dock. As with the previous phases, the emphasis is the clean integration and expression of the nature of construction materials.