Park Ridge native Shelley Ryan believes that her latest career project is “a feather in my cap.”
That’s because the General Superintendent of BrightView Landscapes just completed supervising the landscaping and hardscaping of the Obama Presidential Center.
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Ryan noted that most of her training has been on the job as a General Superintendent at BrightView Landscapes. In that role, she is responsible for all of the operations throughout the Midwest. That includes personnel, equipment, materials, and making sure projects are completed safely, on time, and under budget, Ryan reported.
Ryan has had many interesting projects, she noted, but her favorite has been the Obama Presidential Center.
“I’ve been on this project for three years as the leader,” Ryan said. “I’m the leader of the jobsites here—all of the landscape and hardscape activities. I go to meetings, and I’m here every day. We were responsible for the landscaping elements, the playground, concrete, sidewalks, irrigation, fencing.”
Ryan noted that the landscaping blends well with the surroundings. “We’re right next to the Jackson Park Lagoon, so there’s a lot of native plants—things that want to grow in our climate,” Ryan said. “And there’s a lot of really unique trees that are quirky. The landscape itself has a lot of elevation changes which is cool for Chicago.”
The project is completed and prepared for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center on June 19.
Ryan’s portion of the project is done. The property is now the responsibility of the maintenance division of BrightView.
Ryan said that through this project, “I learned a lot. The expectations when you’re building a project of this scope and this magnitude are so high that you become an upper echelon. It’s definitely going to be huge for my career.”
What is particularly special with this project, Ryan noted, is that often the projects she completes belong to the client. This one belongs to the public.
Ryan concluded that her company was really able to make an impact in the community with the Obama Presidential Center project. “We had a lot of small businesses that we partnered with to make this project happen,” she revealed. “We partnered with minority contractors, women-owned businesses, veteran-owned businesses. That was pretty special to have smaller outfits that might not have been able to get their foot in the door that we tended to make full partnerships.”
Ryan noted that she didn’t immediately begin working on project supervision.
“I got into landscaping in college,” said the University of Montana graduate. “I kind of went down the agricultural route. I started farming and that eventually led me to residential landscaping and gardening and then to commercial green rooftops and more of a commercial construction and landscape role.”
Other favorite projects Ryan cited were Lake Shore East Park and a soccer stadium for the MLS soccer team. She has supervised projects in Washington D.C., Colorado, and Texas, among other places.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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