KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

Earlier this month, Jacobs held an open house to celebrate the completion of the remodel of its conference facility better known as “The Lodge.”

According to Jacobs Executive Vice President and President of Critical Mission Solutions Dr. Steve Arnette, “The Lodge” is used for large scale management meetings and training.

“We feel really good about the project because I think it preserves the historic legacy but it’s also modernized for the future,” Arnette said. “This facility has more than a 50 year history and this gives it a rebirth for another 50 years.”

While the facility has gone through a renovation process, much of the original is still part of the lodge, including the flooring, the fireplace and the ceiling beams/structural elements. Per Arnette, the rest of the facility has been modernized with a gutting and complete renovation. Some of the renovations included converting former bedrooms and bathrooms into two large conference rooms, modernizing the restrooms, redoing the entrance of the “The Lodge” to be handicap accessible and ADA compliant, expanding and inclosing in the porch to be used all year and installing a fire pit area and pavilion for social gatherings and networking events for the company and for potential clients. 

History of “The Lodge” 

“The Lodge” has been a mainstay on Jacobs’ campus since it was moved from Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) in 1979. It was originally built on the shores of the Woods Reservoir at (AEDC) by Gen. Leif Sverdrup’s engineering company Sverdrup and Parcel, who had designed and built facilities which Arnold Research Organization (ARO), a subsidiary of Sverdrup and Parcel, was operating. ARO helped to provide the expertise needed to manage, maintain and operate AEDC’s Engine Test Facility, Propulsion Wind Tunnels, Von Karman Facility and other administrative and ancillary facilities.

From his time collaborating with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and other key advisors, Sverdrup recognized the value of strategic planning tactic locations during wartime, as MacArthur had several lodges around the world, and he would apply this philosophy for teaming building and strategic planning at Sverdrup and Parcel by creating lodges. When the AEDC operations contract split in 1979, with only the Engine Test Facility under the purview of the engineering firm, then President of Sverdrup and Parcel Jack Whitfield made the decision to relocate “The Lodge” to Sverdrup and Parcel’s new campus in Tullahoma, where it would eventually merge with Jacobs Engineering in 1999.

The move was no easy task, as the lodge had to be split into two sections and transported from its original location at AEDC to its new home at William Northern Boulevard. The process included reinforcing the foundation with steel beams, hydraulically lifting the sections from the foundation and affixing an axel system to the steel beams for transportation before reassembling the lodge atop a new foundation with a newly constructed fireplace. 

Jacobs looking forward 

Arnette said the completion of the “The Lodge” came at a good time as Jacobs was recently awarded the Consolidated Operations, Management, Engineering & Test contract at NASA Kennedy Space Center. The contract is estimated to be at approximately $3.2 billion for 10 years.

“It’s perfect for stuff like that,” Arnette said, “just to get people together whether it’s a big management meetings or training session, or have a dedicated small group meetings in the conference rooms to just even for employees and clients to network.”

With the Tullahoma campus serving as the headquarters for the aerospace and defense part of Jacobs, Arnette said they need a facility for when the distributing managers get together where it can be both comfortable for the large meetings with clients and modern for virtual meetings, and “The Lodge” serves as a key piece at Jacobs.

When it comes to planning and renovations, Arnette said there were internal about the status of the lodge two years prior the open house before deciding to modern the facility for what they needed. He added the renovation and construction took about a year to complete due to post COVID-19 pandemic supply chains.

Looking forward, Arnette said the first usage of “The Lodge” will be later in March as for the first time in many years all of the distributed executives, representing 20,000 employees, will come to the campus for a peer review meeting.

“This will be the first time we really have a facility to accommodate that. We had done those meetings in a big hotel in Nashville. So now we can bring that onto our campus, which will be great because we have our central groups that support the business, there are all here on campus so those leaders have access to the same place to those groups.”