Since its founding in 1896, the International Association of Iron Workers (IW) has trained and represented the skilled labor force behind buildings, infrastructure, shipbuilding, and metal fabrication across the U.S. and Canada. Last year, in Broadview, Illinois—just 12 miles west of downtown Chicago, the 19th-century testing ground of steel-frame construction—Ironworkers Local 63 opened a new training facility. Designed by Gensler, the 13,600-square-foot building makes its purpose visible with a 50-foot-tall curtain wall and exposed steel structure, both intended to be taught and examined.
In the early morning light, the dark-tinted building glows softly beside the Eisenhower Expressway. Its subtly tapered form, inspired by the scaled-up shape of a perfect weld bead, follows a straightforward organizational logic: five column bays span its width, stepping back incrementally toward the central bay; a softly undulating grid of tinted glass on the long faces; another grid, this time of concrete panels, on the short ends. But unlike most roadside training facilities, this one gives a theatrical impression.
