West Tennessee Plan Room The West Tennessee Plan Room is a construction reporting bureau and plan room. The plan room is a repository for construction documents of current and recent construction projects. Architects, engineers, designers and building owners place construction documents in the plan room. These plans may then be used by the member organizations for preparing bids and take offs for estimates for general contractors, subcontractors and material suppliers. Members may check out plans overnight, make copies of the documents or view the plans in the plan room. As a reporting bureau the WTPR publishes a weekly bulletin listing all the construction documents on hand or expected along with semi-detailed information about the project to help readers decide if the project includes their particular scope of work. The bulletin is available via mail or email.
History
West Tennessee Plan Room Established: July 26, 1976 Founder: B. J. Rachels The West Tennessee Plan Room (WTPR) was founded on July 26, 1976 by Mr. B. J. Rachels. A native of Henry County Tennessee, Mr. Rachels spent 18 years in the construction industry in Florida , before returning to Tennessee to work for Watlington Brothers, Inc. of Jackson Tennessee. After becoming disabled and unable to work in the field Mr. Rachels, with encouragement from area architects and engineers, began the Plan Room. The Plan Room’s weekly bulletin has been published ever since reaching architects, engineers, general and subcontractors and material suppliers in West and Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Eastern Arkansas and North Mississippi . The Plan Room’s first subscriber was Markham and Hardin, followed by Williams Steel, Enco Materials and Tennessee Pump and Supply, which remain subscribers today although the names and faces have changed. From this small beginning, now approximately 250 subscribers receive the weekly mailings. Mr. Rachels also operated B. J. Rachels’ Professional Estimating Service where he estimated construction costs for commercial and residential construction projects. B. J. Rachels retired from the business. Belinda Stone, Mr. Rachel’s daughter, continued to operate the Plan Room for B. J. until she earned a teaching degree and certificate. Belinda is now a teacher at Liberty High School in Jackson . Thomas Glass Company purchased the Plan Room from Mr. Rachels and his wife Sharon on June 16, 1998 and now operates the Plan Room as a division of the corporation.
