In 2005, Chris Sears, a Registered Landscape Architect, left ValleyCrest (now known as Brightview) to establish Sears, Smith and Associates, Inc. (SS&A), a full-service, Atlanta-based Landscape Architecture firm providing the analysis, planning, design, management and stewardship of the natural and built environments. With a passion for construction, and with a desire to provide a more seamless option for the implementation and installation of his designs, Chris and his wife Amy then established A&C Development, Inc., as a general landscape contractor.