David Hovey's House

David Hovey founded Optima in 1978. The company's name summarizes Hovey's ambitions then and his achievements now. Hovey wanted to reinvent residential housing by optimizing development, design and construction. Even more, Hovey wanted to raise the design standard by building architecturally ambitious housing designed to accommodate modern people with their contemporary needs.

To date, Optima has completed 29 multi-family projects — more than 4,000 units — built in the areas around Chicago, Illinois and Phoenix, Arizona. The scale has risen dramatically over 30 years: from the company's first project of six units — townhomes in Chicago — to more than 650 units in three towers at its most recent project, Optima Old Orchard Woods in suburban Chicago. In addition, Hovey has done a series of four experimental single-family homes in a gated community called Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona. The company has received dozens of awards for everything from architectural excellence, to planning and green design.