Photo: BrightViewBrightView has recently been selected to care for landscapes in Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg.
“We are honored to bring our expertise to this great attraction,” said Andrew Masterman, president and chief executive officer of BrightView Companies. “When an organization makes the decision to source a service like landscaping to an outside company, they must have every confidence that work will be done to the highest standard and in a manner that respects not only the guest experience, but in the case of Colonial Williamsburg, the attraction’s historical significance.”
Gardens in the historic area and specialty arrangements remain under the direct care of Colonial Williamsburg personnel, and BrightView says that many longtime foundation landscape professionals now make up the BrightView team. BrightView says these serviced areas include streetscapes, modern hospitality and retail areas and greens, covering more than 300 acres.
“We all take great pride in every detail at Colonial Williamsburg, and our gardens and grounds are a critical feature of what our guests experience when they visit,” said Robert Underwood, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation vice president of operations. “BrightView’s work for other historic attractions, including the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and Governor’s Island in New York was one of the reasons we selected them.”
“We are delighted to bring into our family landscape professionals of this caliber,” said John Umphred, senior vice president of BrightView’s Mid-Atlantic region. “Many of the landscapers who have now joined us have decades of experience in the craft of landscaping and a deep connection to Colonial Williamsburg.”
Roger Charity, one of the aforementioned landscape professionals, has worked at Colonial Williamsburg for four decades, and on Aug. 1, he and more than two dozen other in-house landscapers joined BrightView. Working exclusively for the foundation, the crew is based in Williamsburg.
“I am very pleased to become part of BrightView and to see their commitment to Colonial Williamsburg,” Charity said. “I have spent most of my career here and I’m passionate about my work making the grounds something we can all be proud of. Everything is going well and people are appreciative of our work. With BrightView, our younger team members just starting out have room to grow from here. It’s a great company to work for. Everybody already interacts as a team-like family.”
Photo: BrightView
