Want to help reshape the Milwaukee skyline? Building Advantage can help.
There’s a gleaming new superstructure in downtown Milwaukee, and its construction hasn’t just changed the skyline. The Northwestern Mutual building, a $450 million, 32-story office tower of steel and glass, has helped to reshape the entire city.
Not long ago, the downtown area was a wide expanse of windy avenues. Now, developers have come calling on a city that was in economic peril just seven years ago. The Northwestern Mutual tower development was followed shortly afterwards by a deal the city made with the Milwaukee Bucks to erect a new $524 million arena, which is set to open next year.
“We have about 750 onsite trades people right now, it ratchets up close to 1000 at its highest moment,” said Bucks president Peter Feigin. “But the great thing is that’s just this project alone. We have three or four other projects going on, so this is a massive employment opportunity.”
A ripple effect is occurring. People are wanting to work, play and live in downtown Milwaukee, which means new construction sites are popping up every day. If you’ve ever considered a job in a trade, strike now, because the irons of Milwaukee are hot.
For those who aren’t sure about what to do or where to go after graduating high school or college, joining a construction trade union is an excellent career choice. There are a ton of options; boilermakers, bricklayers, carpenters, cement masons, electricians, glaziers, iron workers, heat and frost insulators, construction craft laborers, construction of elevators, operating engineers, operative plasterers, painters, plumbers, roofers, sheet metal workers, sprinklerfitters, and steamfitters. All offer apprenticeship programs that can lead you to the life you’ve always dreamed of having. How? By offering you the stability, pay, and benefits that you need to live a life you love.
Samuel Webster Jr. decided to start his electrician’s apprenticeship for just those reasons. “I had been welding for eight years, and it started to seem like a dead-end job,” Samuel said. “With this apprenticeship, I have different areas to venture off to once I become a journeyman. I think it’s benefiting my life. I’m seeing light at the end of the tunnel.”
But how exactly can one make a start at the downtown job sites where business is booming? The first step is to visit BuildingAdvantage.org. Take it from Journey worker Plumber, Christina Breitlow, who’s worked with Building Advantage since day one. “Building Advantage [along with its partners] helps prepare you for your apprenticeship. They make sure you have everything you need and know exactly what you’re getting into before you start an apprenticeship. They make sure you don’t run into little surprises along the way,” said Breitlow. “They can answer any question you might have, be a resource for you, and guide you on your path to getting your apprenticeship. Plus, they can help push you in the direction of what trade works best for you.”
Building Advantage was created by the Construction Labor Management Council of Southeast Wisconsin to actively promote the benefits of hiring union construction contractors and trades people. Together they are helping to change the Milwaukee skyline.
“There’s no better time to live in Milwaukee,” said Ken Kraemer, Executive Director of Building Advantage, who started his own apprenticeship 35 years ago. “They’re experiencing about $2.3 billion worth of construction work going on, some that’s started already and many more in the pipeline getting ready to start now. It’s an excellent alternative if you’re leaving high school and don’t want to start building up a bunch of debt attending college.”
Samuel Webster Jr agreed with Kraemer’s assessment. “I didn’t go to college because I didn’t want the debt,” Webster said. “I’ve talked to a lot of other apprentices who tell me they went to a four-year college. I said, well what are you doing here? And they said, well there aren’t any jobs. I graduated and I can’t find a job. There’s growth in this field and there are benefits in the long run.”
Christina Breitlow’s road to becoming a plumber has as many twists and turns as the pipes she now lays. After graduating high school, Breitlow attended college for three years, changing her major seven times. “In college I was working five days a week as a waitress, I was on the volleyball team, and I was taking 18 credits. It was awful and I was always broke,” Christina said.
After speaking with her parents, and telling them how miserable she was, her father suggested she consider a trade. A plumber himself, he never pushed her towards his chosen craft, but she decided on it anyway. “I liked that I would have a built-in mentor.”
Now, after years of hard work and dedication, Breitlow has never been more thrilled with her decision. “There’s an art to plumbing, you have to really have a passion for it,” she said. “It’s very satisfying to stand back at the end of the day and look at the hundreds of feet of pipe you either put in the air or in the ground, or at all the fixtures you set. And you can say that you created something that day.”
There’s no telling where you’ll stop when you start your apprenticeship
With a trade, your employer pays you to go to day school. You’re immersed in that culture and in everything you need to know to do that job. With more and more construction development popping up downtown, and throughout Milwaukee and Wisconsin itself, joining a trade has never been so appealing to the coming generation. Not only will you have a hand in building the type of Milwaukee you want to live in, but you’ll be in a job that has incredible growth possibilities.
“You get out of trade school with little to no debt,” Christina said. “It’s all about working smarter, not harder. As long as you’re OK with getting your hands dirty and working hard every day, there’s room for growth in the trades. It can lead into a teaching position, a foreman position; you can represent your members as a [business] agent in your local union. There’s no telling where you’ll stop when you start your apprenticeship.” Kraemer added, “We don’t give people a job, we give them a career.”
Everyone from the Milwaukee Bucks to Northwestern Mutual, to state officials and developers, is investing in the city. It’s time to make an investment in yourself. If you’ve ever considered a career in the construction trades, contact Building Advantage today. They can help show you exactly what you need to get started.
“The most satisfying part about my job is knowing that every day I have built something, and I can look around the city of Milwaukee, or even the entire state of Wisconsin, and say ‘I built that,’” said Breitlow. “I can drive through downtown Milwaukee and say ‘I built that building, and that building.’ I can see that progress every day. And that’s pretty awesome.”
Go to buildingadvantage.org for more information today.