Our Story

“My vision when opening christopher consultants was to have a small, highly competent and tight-knit company where all would feel part of a family and be committed to quality products and service. A company where all the staff could fit in a van and go eat crabs together – nothing bigger. That of course did […]

“When we started, it was very important that our company be close to the seat of government for the primary County where we did business. That, for us, was Fairfax County and therefore, Fairfax City. Being close to the County land record room, all the approving agencies and clients’ lawyers dictated the location. This was […]

“Bill Goldsmith and I worked together in the early 70s but didn’t always see eye-to-eye, so he left the company. When the owner of his new firm died suddenly, Bill came back to Long and Brown and we were tasked with working closely together to close out his former firm’s business and try to do […]

Countryside, a single-family home development in Loudoun County, Virginia, was a foundational project for christopher. The first planned community of its kind, and also the largest in Loudoun. It initiated the transformation of Loudoun from a country county with one high school and one water treatment facility into the thriving residential area it is today. […]

christopher’s first PC had 916 MB of RAM! This transformed the way business was done. Before computers, project filing was done using a card catalogue.

christopher entered the Maryland market with Enfield Chase in Bowie. This opportunity came through the request of a top client, 437 Land Co., a part of Hartford Insurance Company who wanted to continue the excellent working relationship and was impressed by the level of attention paid to their Virginia projects. While the firm was at […]

“There was great excitement when we purchased the company’s first survey truck! We felt such pride to be using our own truck with christopher signage. We had really made it! Days later, the truck broke down on the way back from a job. This was before anyone had a cell phone so the crew called […]

“I was working for Loudoun County and actually reviewing plans that christopher submitted for projects. This meant I got to know Chris Brown and Bill Goldsmith well through the plan submission process. I was impressed with the quality of plans the company produced and also with both Chris and Bill. When I decided to leave […]

Silver Creek Lodge, West Virginia opened in 1984 and operated as a stand-alone ski resort until its purchase by Snowshoe Mountain in the mid-1990’s. christopher was brought into the project when Lowe Enterprises was hired to manage the construction of the project and they needed us to perform review of the construction progress and suitability […]

Bill Zink started work the day after President’s Day, 1987, after interviewing with Bill Goldsmith. At that time, the starting salary for an entry level engineer was nine dollars an hour, five dollars an hour less than his after-college job of processing soybeans in Decatur, Illinois. According to Bill, he took the job despite the […]

“After graduating from college in Texas with a degree in Architecture, I decided to move to the East Coast to experience the seasons. Architecture openings were few and far between so I responded to an ad I saw in the paper for a Drafter with christopher. I was hired and learned Civil Engineering on the […]

The beginning of a decades-long tradition, christopher’s softball team started in 1987 and after a few growth years, won a clean sweep of the season record plus the league tournament in 1998.

The bustling retail and residential district, Potomac Yard, was still an active rail yard when christopher began work on it in 1988. Located across the Potomac River from the Nation’s Capital, the 310-acre site stretches from Crystal City in Arlington south along Route 1 into the City of Alexandria. Historically, the property was operated as […]

Dulles 28, a large multi-use development on a 280 acre site at the intersection of Rte. 28 and Waxpool Road in Loudoun County was one of a flood of retail developments underway in 1988 according to a Washington Post article at that time. christopher was involved in a replanning of the property in 1989 with […]

“In August 1989, I was working with Huntley, Nyce and Associates when I decided it was time for a change. Having worked and played softball with a few colleagues that made the switch to christopher, I decided to pursue an opportunity. christopher had a solid reputation in the industry and I was able to interview […]

“I was working for Porten Sullivan Corp who was part owner in a joint venture called Beacon Hill near Leesburg. christopher was the engineer on that project. It was recessionary times and I knew from my position with my company that things were not going well, so I starting looking. christopher was advertising and I […]

One of christopher’s first big jobs in Alexandria was a BJ’s retail store off Route 236 & Van Dorn Street in Alexandria. christopher did the preliminary plan. An interesting fact about this project is that the original plan included gas pumps. They were eventually voted down by the City Council and were not included in […]

christopher moved, as most engineering firms did, from hand drafting to a program called AutoCAD. This revolutionized the company’s drafting, but at the beginning it was still just a drafting tool. HASP, FORTRAN, ProCogo and other long forgotten DOS and Windows text based software helped accelerate our calculations. What once took hours to compute, took […]

When the Washington Football Team was looking to move from its current home at RFK Stadium to a new location, christopher was selected as the team was targeting Potomac Yard. christopher worked with  current owner Jack Kent Cooke and the then governor of Virginia, Douglas Wilder, to develop plans to put RFK Stadium at Potomac […]

South Riding, a planned community in Loudoun County, VA was a particularly noteworthy project as prior to its existence, there were no public utilities at all in this portion of the County. Chris Brown and Lou Canonico worked with the owners of South Riding and other property owners south of Dulles Airport to convince the […]

Construction began on the “Big Box” shopping center in 1995. At that time, Target was the anchor store. Shoppers Food Warehouse and Best Buy rounded out the big name retailers when the shopping center first opened. In addition, christopher began its first design-build project for the firm, the Route 1 Bridge which was completed in […]

Heritage Hunt was a huge turning point for northwest Prince William County. christopher performed planning, civil engineering and surveying services for the development of this 750-acre, Active Adult community. Featuring over 2,000 residential units, property amenities include an 18-hole championship golf course, two clubhouses, tennis courts and indoor and outdoor swimming pools. christopher’s project scope […]

“I got here in kind of an interesting way. Chris Brown called me in the spring of 1997 to ask me questions about a project I was working on across the road from a property he was working on for a condemnation case. After our call, Chris got with Bill Zink and suggested that he […]

Dominion Valley Country Club is a 2,200 acre planned community of over 2,400 single family homes and townhomes and 250,00 sf of office and retail space in Prince William County, located just north of Haymarket on Route 15. christopher provided surveying support and solutions on the infrastructure and houseline stakeouts on multiple sections and roadways […]

The first emails at christopher were shared between 15 “mailboxes.” Only the senior managers got their own e-mail addresses. Then there were some general e-mail addresses for the offices. Admin would monitor them and relay the messages to the appropriate recipient.

In 1998 the Hoffmans were looking for a new civil engineer for a site in Alexandria near Eisenhower Avenue. Bill Zink and Bill Goldsmith presented christopher’s services and reputation and won them over.  The first project we did with them was a utility relocation plan. Once that first plan was done and the Hoffmans were […]

The double C emblem was introduced.

“I was exploring a new country (I’m originally from Canada) and I liked the DC area. christopher had begun doing some land planning and landscape architecture work, but part of my hire was to further develop and expand those two disciplines within the firm. I was intrigued by the opportunity, so I jumped on board. […]

The extensive work on the Heritage Hunt Development required closer proximity than the Fairfax or Loudoun offices allowed. This office was specifically opened to be closer to Heritage Hunt, but it has proven to be an excellent strategic move for acquiring more work in the County.

christopher has had a long history supporting the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and it all started in the late winter of 2001.  For the next several years, our survey group supported WMATA’s acquisition department determining the right-of-way and easement areas for rail corridors between stations in the Virginia region.  During this time, we drafted […]

christopher’s planned expansion into Maryland resulted in the opening of a branch office in Columbia. Eventually, that office moved to the current location in Lanham, pictured here. To date, christopher has completed over 1,500 projects across the state of Maryland.

The aging and highly accessible regional mall in Springfield, VA, has been transformed into a community-oriented mixed-use town center. christopher started work on Springfield Town Center in 2005 and is currently implementing the second phase of the master plan.

christopher was pleased to begin work on their largest project in Maryland to date by provided site planning, surveying, landscape architecture and construction administration services for this 50-acre continuing care retirement community in Ellicott City, Maryland. The planned community offers adults 60 years and older three levels of residential accommodations and care ranging from independent […]

“I had recently started my own business after leaving a very large engineering firm in 2005. I met with Jeff Smith hoping to get work as a subcontractor for christopher but instead, after hearing the christopher story and Jeff talking about an open opportunity with the company, I was hired and started as a Survey […]

National Gateway, an urban town center incorporating 1.5 million sf of office space and over 200,000 sf of restaurants, services and retail shopping was a natural fit for christopher as it sits on the Arlington side of Potomac Yard, where we had already been working for years. christopher provided civil engineering and survey services for […]

By 2007, christopher had moved well beyond working only on the residential planned communities that had been our key market and had ventured into hospitality, but our engagement to work on GMU’s new Conference Center and Hotel was really the milestone project that established us in the hospitality market. christopher designed the plan for this […]

While not a huge job, this project helped geographically expand christopher’s project footprint as part of the revitalization of the DC market. It consisted of site work to support improvements to the exterior renovations of the building (basketball arena). Plans were approved after a thorough review by DC Water and DDOT – giving christopher its […]

christopher engineer John Levtov, PE, Group Leader and Senior Associate, had a connection to Armature Group who was doing work overseas. Armature and the general contractor, Aurora, LLC brought christopher on board to help with a project in Surabaya which launched the firm’s OBO experience and turned into years of international embassy work.

This client appreciation event, hosted by our surveying team, has become a favorite yearly tradition! Who will catch the big one next year?

christopher provided surveying services to Clark Construction for the construction of a new headquarters for the United States Coast Guard. It was the inaugural job of 2010, authorized on January 2nd and marked christopher’s largest surveying project to date.

Bill Zink is christopher’s second president in its history. In 1987, one of Bill’s draftsmen asked him what his goal was for the future and Bill said “I want to be president of the company one day.” From his very first year with the company, Bill had big goals and aspirations. Not only did Bill […]

christopher provided surveying services to Clark Construction Group, LLC, for this new Smithsonian Museum located on the Washington DC National Mall. The National Museum of African American History and Culture represents powerful moments in African American history, culture and community. In addition to the work on the site itself, christopher provided survey support for the […]

“I actually started with christopher in 2005, as a college intern while finishing a degree in Communications and Public Relations. In December 2010, Bill Zink called and offered me an opportunity to return to christopher as part of the admin team, answering phones and helping with data entry for the accounting team. I worked as […]

Working with Alexandria ReNEW Enterprises, christopher provided civil engineering and surveying services for the design of the Alexandria Renew (AlexRenew) Administration Building and full construction stakeout support for Clark Construction for the adjacent soccer field, fronting on Limerick Street. The building, which manages the biological treatment process that cleans wastewater for return to the Chesapeake […]

After nearly two decades of membership, christopher achieved the honor of being named “Firm of the Year” by industry organization NAIOP. During the awards ceremony, christopher was lauded for having spent innumerable hours co-chairing the Government Relations Prince William Subcommittee and the Government Relations Loudoun Subcommittee, as well as being visible in the chapter-wide Government […]

This contract really diversified the surveying work christopher was  performing in 2013. The scope of services included a full range of surveying services including topographic, boundary, bathymetric and as-built surveys as well as conventional and GPS surveying, photogrammetry and ground-based laser surveying.

christopher consultants provided civil engineering and surveying services to Studio 27 Architecture for the renovation and new construction of this bilingual charter school into Washington D.C.’s first “green” public charter school. Although this wasn’t our first foray into K-12 projects, it was the first to achieve LEED Gold and Platinum while the joining Annex (La […]

After dedicating 33 years of his life to christopher, he hands the reins off!

Can you spot the difference? The logo changed from all one line to the stacked logo christopher uses today.

Jim Maier, a surveyor at christopher for 19 years, sadly passed in 2004 and is still fondly remembered among the more tenured employees. Paul Tiffin, a well-regarded civil engineer who worked at christopher for 24 years, passed in March of 2014. Both former employees were memorialized by naming conference rooms in their memory.

christopher worked with Exxon Mobile in 2012 on the sale of their 117-acre headquarter site off Gallows Road in Fairfax, Virginia, to Inova Hospital for a planned redevelopment and expansion. ICPH is poised to become the ultimate hub of science and technological innovation, offering treatments and research for countless types of cancers, diseases, ailments, injuries […]

This unique project, constructed by IDI Group Companies, takes a City of Fairfax historic landmark and turns it into the center of a new, 18.5 acre, mixed-use development with multi-family condominiums, townhomes, single-family homes, community and retail uses as well as public open spaces and a plaza called Boulevard VI.

During this fun season, there were unfortunately too many injuries among engineers and surveyors that hampered their drafting/design ability!  In the interest of preserving the life and limb of the staff, christopher’s dodgeball team retired after one season. The thrill of ending the season as the league champions was dampened only by one particularly aggressive […]

Paciulli, Simmons & Associates, Ltd. (PSA), was a civil engineering, surveying and land planning firm acquired by christopher at the end of January, 2017. Headquartered in Leesburg, Virginia at the time, PSA was recognized as the oldest business in the Washington Metropolitan area. “With the addition of Paciulli we had the unique opportunity to expand […]

christopher’s data center boom started with the Facebook Data Center in Henrico County. Since then, data centers have transformed both landscape and property values as data’s role continues to grow. To date christopher has worked on a dozen or more data center campuses comprising more than 30 buildings as we continue to rapidly grow this […]

christopher launched its first Employee Resource Group to provide opportunities for the women of christopher to learn from and engage with each other, strengthen their community relationships and encourage leadership readiness. What started with a handful of meetings per year has now turned in to a robust schedule with educational opportunities, philanthropy initiatives, informal gatherings […]

christopher provided engineering and surveying services for the design/build of the new FBI Central Records Complex located in Winchester, Virginia. This project was one of christopher’s largest federal projects to date, $135 million in construction costs. Work with the FBI began in 2013 when christopher provided civil engineering and surveying services for the FBI Field […]

The return of the champions! Softball has always been a favorite pastime for christopher employees, so after a several year league hiatus (recession fallout), the league was restarted in 2015 and christopher won the championship in 2017, 2018 and 2019.  Returning to the game and taking the championship shortly thereafter was an especially sweet victory.

christopher leadership took a forward-looking approach to plan out how to continue to drive success and growth. Focus was centered on the promotion of longevity, sustainability and the stability of the firm.

Cervantes & Associates brought extensive experience and knowledge in the Federal arena to christopher. Rafael Cervantes’s decades of civil engineering and surveying experience include over 60 embassy compounds and numerous military installations.   christopher Expands Federal Market Capabilities Through Partnership with Cervantes & Associates

Paciulli, Simmons & Associates was recognized as the oldest business in the Washington Metropolitan area by the Washington Business Journal. Through the years, the family business and land surveying knowledge would be handed down through 8 generations of family, helping to grow Northern Virginia into what it is today. In 1958 the company was passed […]

Continuing the long relationship christopher has with Potomac Yard, this is the first in-line metro station being constructed in the middle of the Braddock Road and National Airport tracks.

christopher’s fifth office location opens to expand opportunities and diversify geographically into the Richmond market.

After devoting 36 years of his life to christopher, Bill retires.

This office marked christopher’s sixth location. christopher has seen exceptional growth in the western regions of the state and this location allows service to clients in the surrounding jurisdictions.

christopher overcame the challenges brought on by the pandemic by successfully implementing remote working for 90% of employees.

christopher founded the Diversity, Equity + Inclusion task force with the vision to help create a more diverse and inclusive company and AEC industry by sharing knowledge and raising awareness. Under the DEI umbrella, christopher’s Network of Women was rebranded as an ERG and two others were added, “Multicultural” and “Working Parents.”

With the DEI Task Force freshly created, christopher leadership and staff wanted to unite communities in a real and tangible way. The fact that many bright young minds are limited not by their talent but by a lack of opportunity was clear. In partnership with Unity Reed High School in Prince William County, we initiated a […]

When christopher began work on Potomac Yard in 1988 it was with the knowledge that portions would eventually be redeveloped to allow for largescale growth and development. In February 2021, the industry watched as the first structures were demolished to make way for the future: Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus and its surrounding growth.. The first […]

Ronald Villatoros Ortiz, Jr. was the first recipient of the christopher consultants Civil Engineering Scholarship in June 2021. This Scholarship was founded to unite communities in a real and tangible way by providing opportunity to the many bright young minds for whom a college education is simply financially out of reach.

Over the years, christopher worked closely with Ross-France. When work came up outside of Prince William County, Ross-France would often refer the work to christopher. Ross-France’s Principal, Mike Massey, and one of christopher’s Vice Presidents, Mike Kitchen, became friends and would talk often. When the opportunity arose to fold them into the christopher family, their […]

Shafin Anika and Luis Ramos Garcia, 2022 graduates of Unity Reed High School in Manassas, Virginia, were each awarded scholarship funds, rounding out their college tuition to Old Dominion University and University of Virginia, respectively. christopher consultants Scholarship Selection Committee member, Kevin Washington, VP Urban Land said, “Shafin Anika demonstrated, through her impressive GPA, that she […]

After 40 years in our original location on Main Street, our Fairfax and Corporate offices moved four miles down the road to 4035 Ridge Top Road, Suite 601, Fairfax, VA 22030. The new location is close to the intersection of Route 66 and Route 50, providing quick access to the main arteries connecting our offices […]