This jewel box of a building is actually a training center for a new generation of ironworkers

"The training facility is being used to give young ironworkers hands-on experience welding, climbing, and installing the essential elements that underlie buildings around the world. As anxiety snowballs over just which professions will survive the emergence of artificial intelligence, physical trades like ironwork are seeming more and more AI proof-the building itself a counterargument to the perception that a promising career path necessarily starts at a university."

"Despite the role's name, ironwork involves a wide range of construction processes that go far beyond welding massive metal beams. More than half the union's work in recent years has been installing glass curtain walls­-the smooth facades that shimmer on skyscrapers the world over. Paul Wende saw the trendlines. He's the union's business manager, financial secretary, and treasurer, and he set out to give the unionworkers a place to refine those skills without having to learn on the job."

The new glass-lined training facility for Ironworkers Local 63 sits in Broadview on Chicago's outskirts and resembles a university building. The facility gives young ironworkers hands-on experience in welding, climbing, and installing essential building elements inside a giant glass jewel box. Ironwork covers a wide range of construction processes beyond welding massive beams; more than half of recent union work involves installing glass curtain walls, the smooth facades on skyscrapers. Paul Wende, the union's business manager, financial secretary, and treasurer, created the center so apprentices can refine curtain-wall and related skills without learning only on the job. Training emphasizes precision because glass alignments must be perfect.

Read at Fast Company