2018 Architecture Awards

Build 2018 Architecture Awards 94 ince its inception in 1978, Optima has continuously maintained its passion for creating quality, luxury spaces for people to call ‘home.’ The company’s founder, award-winning architect David C. Hovey, FAIA believes the best way to achieve total quality control is to direct and manage development, design, construction, sales/leasing, and property management, and as such the firm abides by this and offers a full complement of architectural and real estate services to its valued clients. From the beginning, David C. Hovey, FAIA has worked as CEO while his wife Eileen is the designated broker and oversees marketing and sales. Son David Hovey Jr., AIA, is an award-winning architect and acts as president of Optima Holdings and is the lead architect on design and development of the company’s properties. Daughter Tara Hovey is COO and manages and directs the firms’ projects. The company’s name summarizes Hovey’s ambitions then and its achievements now. Hovey wanted to reinvent residential housing by optimizing development, design and construction. Even more, he wanted to raise the design standard by building architecturally ambitious housing designed to accommodate modern people with their contemporary needs. Today, as a family-owned real estate firm, Optima remains committed to innovation, sustainable design, and creating open spaces full of natural light for its residents. Over the years the company has developed over 40 mixed-use and residential developments in both the Chicago and Phoenix metropolitan areas and received over 50 awards for architecture, sustainability, and innovation. The scale has risen dramatically since the firm first began: from the company’s first project of six units — town homes in Chicago — to more than 800 units in four towers at its most recent project, Optima Kierland in Phoenix, Arizona and 495 units at Optima Signature in downtown Chicago. The company has received dozens of awards for everything from architectural excellence, to planning and green design. Thanks to the vast array of services it offers, the firm is able to offer clients a complete service under one roof, a fact which has been central to its success. Optima carefully considers, manages and controls the thousands of details that go into creating a distinctive quality home, which is what makes clients value their Optima home from the moment they move in. With a focus on creating powerful cost efficiencies that enable it to be more responsive to the marketplace and the discerning personal tastes of its homeowners, Optima handles all aspects of development, design, construction, sales/leasing, and property management in-house. The firm is proud to call AIA and LEED-certified architects, expert construction managers, sophisticated real estate brokers, experienced accountants, and financial analysts part of the Optima family. They all contribute to delivering an unparalleled spectrum of services and communities. To ensure excellence for every client and an outcome they can be proud of, the company’s process is streamlined and controlled. A concentrated, multi-disciplinary structure eliminates the inefficiencies and redundancies that plague conventional developers. Optima is staffed by engineers, construction managers, accountants and architects. Among the last group are past students of Hovey’s from the architecture program at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago where he was both an associate professor and alumnus. The firm’s collaborative approach extends from internal staff to outside collaborators, and as a result Optima is committed to strategic innovation, and works with a range of firms and solutions to provide clients with unique solutions. Among these collaborators is bimSCORE, a dynamic solution whose evaluations and advisory empower Optima to integrate BIM technologies with Optima’s business planning, objectives, organization, and processes. Through continuous benchmarking and attention to improvement, Optima and bimSCORE have formed a long- Luxury Urban Housing Designer of the Year 2018 - USA Drawing on over 40 years’ experience in the market, Optima, Inc. is a vertically-integrated luxury residential development firm providing development, architecture, design, construction, sales, and property management services. We profile the firm to gain a fascinating insight into the work it undertakes and explore the secrets behind its incredible success. S AR180046 Company: Optima, Inc. Contact: David Hovey Jr., AIA Address: 630 Vernon Ave, Suite E, Glencoe, IL, 60022, USA Website: www.optimaweb.com