 Robert & Company
In 1917,
at
the age of 30, Chip Robert, Jr. established Robert & Company;
since
that time the company has played an integral part in
the industrial and economic development of
Georgia
and the Southeast. Robert & Company has
been
truly instrumental in the creation of the New South.
In 1917 the United States had just declared
war
on Germany, John F. Kennedy was born, Woodrow Wilson
was
President, and Chip Robert had just graduated from
Georgia Tech with degrees in civil and experimental
engineering.
Some would think it fool-hardy for a young
man
fresh from college to start a new company in the middle
of wartime, but a true entrepreneur sees opportunities
where
others see only risks.
The company
witnessed
incredible
changes through the years: the roaring 20s when a threebedroom
house cost $4,800, the discovery
of Penicillin,
Chrysler
merging with Dodge, and George Eastman demonstrating the
first color movie film. There
were the
challenges
too. The Great Depression did not stop Robert & Company,
which continued to design and build projects in 250 cities
and towns in 37 states. In the 1940s,
the engineering
skills of Robert & company allowed
for the
construction of various major projects, such as an aircraft
assembly plant in Marietta (today Lockheed
Martin)—the largest manufacturing plant in the world.
That project
was quite successfully completed during another period
of challenge— the Japanese bombing of Pearl
Harbor
and the United States entering World War II.
In the
1950s,
Robert & Company became the largest architectural
and engineering
firm in the South. It was during this time, that the company
began working on Grady Memorial Hospital,
designed
Callaway Gardens, and worked on Georgia Ports Authority
Bulk Handling Facility in Savannah. With an impressive
staff of
240 employees, Robert & Company became the
largest
architectural and engineering firm in the South.
Just
as
the United States
was landing
its
first men on the moon and the nation was witnessing the
first human heart transplant,
Robert & Company started work on the Atlanta Airport
terminal
design.
In the
1970s Robert & Company showed off its diversity of
skills
by designing and constructing the wastewater recycling
facility in Clayton County, and completing work on such
landmark
buildings as the Atlanta Civic Center and Emory
University
Hospital (expansion) and the Emory Chemistry Building.
Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s the
company
continued to advance its range of services, which now included
engineering; architecture; planning and landscape
architecture;
environmental and transportation engineering; and industrial
Process Systems.
Leadership
is what
makes a
company
or an individual
stand out
from
the crowd, and leadership is what Robert & Company
has shown
steadfastly throughout the decades of growth and engineering
excellence.
In highlighting
Robert & Company in this issue, we pay homage to an
engineering
firm that deserves the recognition of being one of the
oldest and most recognized names in engineering
in the
State of Georgia.
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