Since Optima’s founding, we have thoughtfully developed environments where nature and architecture coexist. Optima Lakeview and Optima Verdana are great representations of how we create this harmony in a multi-seasonal environment. Optima Lakeview recently had its grand opening and is now taking in-person tours of four floors of amenities, including the sky deck, and three new model residences. Optima Verdana is scheduled for completion in spring of 2023.
Located on Chicago’s North Shore, the Optima Verdana apartment community has rooftop bocce ball courts. Permission granted by Optima Inc.
As the Fourth of July holiday nears and temperatures soar across the country, apartment residents look for opportunities to stay cool while enjoying the outdoors.
To meet this demand, designers, owners and operators are expanding the possibilities of the exterior. These include making improvements to staples like the pool and lounge area, adding unique attractions, bringing traditionally indoor amenities outside or creating indoor-outdoor spaces that residents can enjoy year-round.
One major design choice facing properties that choose to incorporate a pool is where to put it — with the most common choices being in a central courtyard or on a rooftop deck.
Designed by HLW, the Beach apartments from Newport Rentals in Jersey City, New Jersey, offer an extensive waterfront green space with multiple seating areas and landscaping.
Permission granted by HLW
“When designing an outdoor pool, a developer needs to consider the accessibility of the pool, what the view will be and the ambiance of the site,” Diana Pittro, executive vice president at Chicago-based RMK Management Corp., told Multifamily Dive
Edward Stand, principal and director of quality management at New York City-based design firm HLW, notes that a property’s pool placement can depend on the demographics of its tenants and the intended purpose of the pool.
“If an owner is angling for families, amenities will be tailored toward children,” Stand said. “If the building is 20-plus stories high, parents might not want their children throwing a beach ball around on the roof.”
Fun and games
Active programming that promotes social interaction through entertainment and gaming options — such as bocce, cornhole, volleyball and movie nights on a lawn or rooftop space — continue to be very popular during the summertime, according to Mary Cook, founder and president of Chicago-based design firm Mary Cook Associates.
Outdoor amenities at Optima Kierland in Scottsdale, Arizona, include a rooftop running track.
Permission granted by Optima Inc.
Those activities could be paired with opportunities to kick back and relax. For instance, an upcoming $100 million apartment complex on Purdue University’s Fort Wayne, Indiana, campus, developed in a public-private partnership with Providence, Rhode Island-based builder and developer Gilbane, is set to start construction in October and open by June 2026. In addition to green spaces, grilling stations, fire pits and sand volleyball and basketball courts, the property’s 600 future residents will also have access to a “hammock farm” for outdoor relaxation.
For serious workouts, one of the most popular new amenity moves is the extension of the indoor fitness center into an outdoor space, often taking the form of a multipurpose lawn specifically for exercise. “We’re seeing fitness centers with dedicated outdoor space — gym equipment and turf areas on covered outdoor terraces,” Alan Barker, principal and residential market leader at Chicago-based design firm Lamar Johnson Collaborative, told Multifamily Dive.
Optima, Inc. said Thursday its construction team has topped off Optima Verdana, a new luxury six-story, 100-unit rental apartment building at 1210 Central Ave. in Wilmette, IL, on Chicago’s North Shore. Pre-leasing will begin in early May with move-ins starting in July.
Optima Verdana will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with an average size of 1,499 square feet. The boutique building will also feature 8,000 square feet of street-level retail space, as well as a publicly accessible plaza with an original eight-foot sculpture by Optima CEO and co-founder David Hovey Sr..
“Every detail at Optima Verdana has been carefully curated – from using green concrete in the construction process to the signature vertical landscaping system,” said Hovey. “We are excited to move into the next phase of interior construction and begin pre-leasing this spring, as we’ve experienced unprecedented interest from residents on the North Shore and across the country.”
Multifamily real estate is at a turning point. After a decade-long bull run of increasing rent growth and compressing cap rates, things have started to slow down. The demand for multifamily housing remains high due to the ongoing housing shortage, but the slowing economy is making renters more price-sensitive. In fact, almost half of U.S. markets saw multifamily rental prices drop over the last year. At the same time, inflation has made it much harder for multifamily owners. The cost of running a building continues to increase, and interest rates are higher than they have been in nearly half a century. Even if inflation cools and rates decrease, the sector will remain competitive. More investors are pouring into the space, many from other property sectors, and more new apartments are coming on the market in 2024 than in any year since Richard Nixon was president.
These factors have forced the multifamily industry to innovate, and it has innovated. Developers are finding new ways to fit more units into less space, engineers are working to make buildings as efficient as possible, and owners are introducing new services and adding impressive amenities.
To showcase the innovation happening in multifamily right now, we have put together a showcase of innovative multifamily properties. Each property has been selected from a long list of great candidates for its uniqueness and ability to solve some of the problems currently facing the industry.
Solara in Rotterdam, New York
Solara is the largest apartment community in the U.S. to achieve net zero distinction (Credit: Solara)
Most multifamily properties strive to be more sustainable, but few achieve “net zero” status. Solara, an 11-building, 340,000-square-foot property in Rotterdam, New York, has managed to do so. The developer, Bruns Realty Group, previously completed New York’s first-ever net zero multifamily development, netZero Village, and applied their learnings to this three-phase project.
Solara features an efficient design that leverages renewable energy sources in multiple ways. The entire carport is covered with solar panels, producing 153,000 kilowatts per year, enough to power the entire property. Each building has its own solar-powered direct hot water system, supplemented by air-to-water heat pumps. The property also includes a solar-heated pool and 36 EV charging stations.
While Solara’s on-site energy generation is impressive, its methods for reducing consumption are even more noteworthy. The development, a two-time winner of NYSERDA’s Buildings of Excellence award, is incredibly well-insulated with a thick layer of foam on the roof and walls, as well as a vented “mini-attic.” The design team used the Passive House Planning Package to model energy consumption and incorporated several passive solar strategies, such as orienting buildings to maximize daylight in the winter and adding exterior shading to block the sun during peak heat hours in the summer. To dispel the myth that net zero buildings require expensive, state-of-the-art materials, Bruns Realty intentionally used cost-effective, commonly available materials and traditional construction techniques.
Vero offers urban living in Tempe with compact units and a focus on walkability. (Credit: Vero)
Walkability and a car-free lifestyle used to be achievable only in dense urban areas, but buildings like Vero in Tempe, Arizona, are challenging that notion. Built within Arizona State University’s Novus Innovation Corridor, the 200-unit, seven-story development offers an urban lifestyle in an area known for its sprawling suburbs. The large student population in the area meant that rents needed to be kept as low as possible. Vero achieved this by shrinking rooms to as small as 360 square feet. Many units are rented furnished and include space-saving furniture like Murphy beds.
Proximity to nearby transit stations and the mixed-use nature of the surrounding innovation park allowed developers to reduce parking significantly compared to typical Sunbelt markets. Parking is not included in the rent, so many residents prefer to forgo a spot. This has helped Vero achieve a parking ratio of 0.7 spaces per unit, compared to the area average of around 1.15. This innovative approach not only reduces costs but also encourages a more sustainable lifestyle among residents.
Despite the focus on affordability, Vero offers several high-end amenities, including a fitness center, co-working space, and a dog wash station. Forty of the units are studios that still provide space for full-sized appliances, storage, and bathtubs. The property also includes communal spaces that foster a sense of community among residents, such as shared lounges and outdoor seating areas. Vero’s connection to surrounding offices and school facilities makes it attractive to both students and young professionals. The building’s design echoes this youthful yet sophisticated vibe with bold yet elegant accents and fixtures, creating a stylish and inviting living environment.
Optima Verdana in Wilmette, Illinois
Optima Verdana’s biophilic design features self-watering plant curtains that enhance air quality and insulation. (Credit: Bill Timmerman)
“Biophilic” is a word frequently used in the architecture and design worlds, often implying little more than an abundance of indoor plants. However, the Optima Verdana building stands out for its truly biophilic design, using plants not only to enhance the local ecosystem but also to provide the building with added functionality. This 100-unit building features self-watering troughs on each balcony, growing cascading plants that hang like curtains once fully grown. According to David Hovey Jr., president and COO at Optima Inc., these plant curtains “promote evaporative cooling, re-oxygenate the air, reduce dust, smog levels, and ambient noise, detain stormwater, help insulate the building, and shield residents from the sun’s rays.” Hovey and his team tested different bed designs and evaluated various types of plants to ensure a suitable option that looks good year-round.
Optima Verdana was designed to be Two Green Globes Certified, a designation given by the Green Building Initiative. This certification considers sustainability, occupant health, and building resiliency. Low-carbon concrete was used in the construction, and all windows are made with bird-friendly glass on the first three stories. To foster community, the property offers numerous amenities, including a recreation center with a wood court for basketball or pickleball, a golf simulator, and a game room. The rooftop features perhaps Optima Verdana’s most impressive amenity: an indoor/outdoor pool encased in retractable glass for year-round use.
Optima Verdana demonstrates that sustainable design does not have to impede resident comfort; it can, in fact, enhance it. Extras like complimentary coffee and towel service are ecological ways the building provides a better experience for residents.
Integrated architecture and real estate development firm Optima, Inc. has announced its construction team has topped off Optima Verdana, a new luxury six-story, 100-unit rental apartment building at 1210 Central in Wilmette. Located across Green Bay Road from the Wilmette Metra commuter train station, Optima Verdana is ideally positioned for North Shore commuters, featuring 176 parking spaces, as well as electric vehicle charging stations.
With the concrete structure complete, Optima has installed the glass exterior panels on the first, second and third floors, with façade work continuing to move up the building. Aligning with Optima’s commitment to sustainability and the natural environment, the glass on the first three floors is bird-friendly, featuring a subtle pattern to help birds avoid the glass.
Optima Verdana will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with an average size of 1,499 square feet to give residents more flex space for ever-changing lifestyles. The boutique building will also feature 8,000 square feet of street-level retail space, as well as a publicly accessible plaza with an original 8-foot sculpture by Optima CEO and co-founder David Hovey Sr., FAIA.
“Every detail at Optima Verdana has been carefully curated – from using green concrete in the construction process to the signature vertical landscaping system,” said Hovey. “We are excited to move into the next phase of interior construction and begin pre-leasing this spring, as we’ve experienced unprecedented interest from residents on the North Shore and across the country.”
Inspired by the word “verdure” – meaning lush, green vegetation – Optima Verdana marks the Chicago-area debut of the latest evolution of Optima’s signature vertical landscaping system, which was developed in Arizona but modified to accommodate the Midwest’s four seasons. In what will be a first for the developer in the Chicago area, Optima Verdana plants will stay green year-round and be maintained by Optima’s property management team. The self-containing irrigation and drainage system promotes evaporative cooling, re-oxygenates the air, reduces dust and smog levels, decreases ambient noise and detains stormwater.
At Optima, we’re always striving to elevate the living experience. Recognizing the growing popularity of pickleball, we’ve incorporated an indoor court at Optima Verdana, ensuring residents can enjoy this exciting sport year-round.
A massive residential development in Wilmette is nearly move-in ready.
Construction is in the final phases at Optima Verdana, a six-story, 100-unit apartment building at 1210 Central Ave. — corner of Central Avenue and Green Bay Road — and residents will begin moving in in July, according to Ali Burnham, Optima Inc.’s marketing director.
Optima Verdana is Wilmette’s tallest residential building west of Sheridan Road, and of its 100 units, 35 are two-bedroom, 35 are three-bedroom and 30 are one-bedroom apartments.
They range from 660 (1-bed) to 2,256 square feet (3-bedroom) at $2,956 to more than $12,000 (2 penthouse units, already rented) per month. Multiple variations of apartments are available within each bedroom level. Burnham said that a third of the units are already leased, leaving 77 available to prospective renters beginning on May 17.
As a condition of the project’s approval, Optima Inc. agreed to pay the Village of Wilmette $1.6 million to support affordable-housing initiatives villagewide — a payment that was executed in the fall of 2021. The funds, according to previous Record reporting, were granted to Community Partners for Affordable Housing, which believes it can turn the support into at least 15 affordable units.
Other stipulations for approval, which occurred in October 2020, included Optima’s funding of certain streetscape improvements, and its inclusion of a public plaza and public parking on site of Optima Verdana. Burnham said 29 public spaces are available near the entrance of the development’s parking garage, which also features two levels of underground tenant parking.
The building features a signature glass exterior — which uses bird-friendly, patterned glass — that will be complemented with vertical greenery as evergreen plants such as boxwoods, junipers, winter creepers and more grow into place.
Inside, Optima Verdana’s first floor includes a host of resident amenities, such as a pickleball/basketball court, golf simulator, yoga studio, fitness center, business center, dog park, and interior and exterior lounges. A skydeck — top-floor pool, spa, bocce court, herb garden and more — will be open by August, Burnham said.
A rendering of Optima Verdana as submitted by developers in 2020. | Image from Village of Wilmette
Most in-unit amenities, from stoves to outdoor grills, at Optima Verdana run on electricity. The outdoor firepit available in many units is the only gas appliance, she said.
Burnham said first-floor units will be ready for residents in July, and move-in access on subsequent floors will be available in three-week increments.
“We are very excited to open Optima Verdana this week,” said David Hovey Jr., Optima Inc.’s president, in a statement. “… We appreciate the positive feedback we already are receiving from members of the community about Optima Verdana’s design. We thank the Village trustees and staff for their vision and collaboration to bring this project to fruition.”
Optima Inc. boasts three residential complexes in Chicago and another five in Arizona, and also developed projects in Highland Park, Evanston and Skokie.
The Wilmette development also has 8,000 square feet of first-floor commercial space, which Burnham said will be occupied by one or two businesses. She said Optima is seeking a “destination restaurant” or small-item market, a strategy that aligns with the Village of Wilmette’s for the Village Center district.
We’re excited to announce that Optima Verdana has received a 2024 Multi-Housing News Excellence Award (Development & Design) in the Mid-Rise category. The Multi-Housing News Excellence Awards recognizes the multifamily industry’s most noteworthy people, companies, properties and more. Learn more on Multi-Housing News.
WILMETTE, ILL. — Optima Inc. has begun leasing Optima Verdana, a 100-unit luxury apartment complex in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette. The community is scheduled to welcome its first residents in July and is currently more than 30 percent leased. Optima Verdana offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units as well as penthouse residences ranging in size from 660 to 2,790 square feet. Monthly rents will range from $2,950 to nearly $12,000. Optima’s CEO and founder, David Hovey Sr., designed the community.
Residents will have access to Optima’s complimentary concierge program, Optimized Service, which provides in-home package delivery, grocery delivery and plant watering. Residents can also schedule on-demand services through the Optima Verdana mobile app such as housekeeping, pet care, fitness classes, massage service and a private chef.
Optima Verdana gets its name from “verdure,” which means lush green vegetation. The community features several sustainable initiatives, including the Chicago area debut of Optima’s proprietary exterior vertical landscaping system. The self-contained irrigation and drainage system uses plants to promote evaporative cooling, reoxygenate the air, reduce dust and smog levels, decrease ambient noise and detain stormwater.
Indoor amenities at the property include a 24-hour front door person, pickleball/basketball court, fitness center, yoga room, massage room, golf simulator and sports lounge, kids’ playroom, pet park, library lounge and multiple work-from-home spaces. A seventh-floor sky deck features a glass-enclosed lap pool and spa designed for year-round use with retractable glass walls that open onto the sundeck. Residents also have access to a sauna, two herb gardens, bocce court, firepits, party room and game room.
On a sunny winter day, residents of Optima Kierland are pursuing their morning rituals—walking the dog, working out in the fitness room, running on a track around the rooftop pool, powering up a Zoom call in the lounge, heading to the underground garage for the commute to work. But the 1,000-unit condo and rental complex, spread across five towers, is not your typical brown-box-and-a-balcony multifamily project so prevalent around the Valley. Instead, it is a sustainable, architectural tour-de-force, balancing concrete and glass, shade and sunlight, voids and cubic forms, all cooled with lush plantings that defy boundaries between outside and in.
The project is one of the latest achievements by father-and-son architects David Hovey Sr. and David Hovey Jr., who, along with other family members, run Optima, headquartered in Scottsdale and Chicago. Known for their edgy, architecturally striking designs of multifamily complexes and innovative construction techniques and materials, the Hoveys—and their company—have found the secret sauce to success. Optima is a soup-to-nuts company that develops, designs, builds and manages projects, overseeing everything from site selection to specifying kitchen sink faucets.
“I’ve been a fan of the Hoveys’ architecture for a long time,” says architect Anthony Floyd, who heads Scottsdale’s green building program and has worked with the Hoveys on sustainability strategies for several of their projects. “They’ve changed how we view multifamily housing here. What they create is unlike what we’ve seen in Arizona—or even the world.”
The history of this modernist dynasty began with Hovey Sr. Born in New Zealand to a Kiwi mother and a U.S. Marine father, he moved with his family to Chicago when he was 15 years old. “Chicago is the foremost city in the world for modern architecture,” Hovey Sr. says. “Being there sparked my interest in architecture.”
Hovey Sr. enrolled in the Illinois Institute of Technology, where Mies van der Rohe had served as dean and shaped the school’s modernist bent. “Mies was no longer at IIT when I studied there,” he remembers, “but some of us went to his house one night and didn’t leave until 4 a.m. He lived in an old brick apartment—not one of his designs—because he didn’t want to be constantly accosted by clients.”
During college, Hovey Sr. worked as an assistant to the curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago, igniting his love of modern art and inspiring his later work in metal sculpture. His first job out of school was with a small firm, but, wanting to experience a larger office, Hovey Sr. signed on with noted Chicago architect Helmut Jahn, working there for four years during the 1970s.
“My son and I are contemporary architects. We are interested in the design, materials and technologies of the 21st century. We’re not interested in allusions to the past.”
David Hovey Sr., FAIA, architect
But there was always an itch to do his own thing. “My IIT professor, Arthur Takeuchi, always said that an architect was the low man on the totem pole when it came to projects,” Hovey Sr. recalls. “He said the best outcome was to be not only the designer but also the developer and client.”
Heeding those words, Hovey Sr. launched Optima in suburban Chicago in 1978, along with his wife, Eileen Sheehan Hovey, who handled the real estate component of their projects. Before long, they were specializing in design-driven multifamily complexes around the city and, later, joined by their children, Tara Hovey, who handles financial strategies for the company, and David Jr., who earned his master’s in architecture at his father’s alma mater and now serves as CEO.
Frequent winter visitors to Scottsdale, the family opened a second Optima office in the desert in the early 2000s, sensing a market that was open to innovative modernist housing. By then, Hovey Jr. was helping push forward Optima’s shape-shifting experimentations with design, materials and construction methods. “When I was working as a construction superintendent on our job sites,” says Hovey Jr., “I observed inefficiencies between architecture and construction that could be improved by prefabrication.”
Though they became known for apartments and condos, the father and son have long experimented with techniques and approaches by building single-family spec homes, completing several over the years in North Scottsdale. “We had to find a new language for architecture here in Arizona,” Hovey Sr. says. “Studying Frank Lloyd Wright’s shelters, we learned to design optimum structures in the desert, ones that celebrated the indoor-outdoor relationship and incorporated sustainable features, such as solar power and passive cooling. We took what we learned from these spec homes and translated that into our multifamily work.”
After completing their first Arizona project, the Biltmore Optima, the Hoveys wanted to include landscaped roofs and terraces for the next site, Optima Camelview. Hovey Jr. worked with ASU to study desert plants in terrace- and rooflike beds at a site in Glendale. “We looked at about 150 kinds of plants and trees,” Hovey Jr. notes. “We learned which survived in extreme sun or shaded spots and which didn’t.”
Optima Camelview, a condominium project, won accolades and awards for its—literal—green design of lushly landscaped terraces, as well as other sustainable strategies, such as shaded glass walls, underground parking and public open space. Optima Sonoran Village, rental apartments in downtown Scottsdale, followed, expanding on the design theme, as did the recently completed Optima Kierland. Under construction now is Optima McDowell Mountain, which will be a six-tower development of rental apartments and condos, mixing in street-level retail and even more amenities and green elements, such as rainwater harvesting, than the previous projects.
As the Hoveys moved forward with projects, they developed relationships with core groups of craftspeople, such as Jerry Barnier, founder of Suntec Concrete. “We started working together about 15 years ago,” says Barnier, “and we found that the Hoveys are very receptive to pushing the design forward efficiently. They understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to construction. They push everyone to do their best work.”
Despite recent pushback about high-density development in some parts of the Valley, the Hoveys are secure in their place in the desert’s urban landscape. “Having density and height on a site allows us to create open space that’s accessible to the public—and not just our building residents,” Hovey Sr. points out. “It also gives us room to have setbacks that are landscaped. Our McDowell Mountain project is planned around a central park open to everyone.”
Always looking for future possibilities, the father and son prefer to concentrate on one or two projects at a time. “Each development we do is a progression, a journey of how we envision people living in the 21st century.”
Optima Sonoran Village in downtown Scottsdale has five residential towers set around landscaped courtyards with views of Camelback Mountain. Each apartment has plant-fringed balconies that add to the greenscape.
A stint working at The Art Institute of Chicago sparked David Hovey Sr.’s love of contemporary art and his own work as a sculptor, including “Kiwi,” which graces an Optima project in Chicago.
Optima Kierland Center, the Hoveys’ most recent project, is a series of condo and apartment dwellings offering luxe amenities, including cooling landscaping, rooftop pools and running tracks, a golf simulator and a dog “spa” for washing pooches.
In the heart of the Camelback Corridor, Biltmore Towers was the Hoveys’ first foray into the Arizona multifamily market and featured unique design elements, such as recessed balconies, red trellises and orange sunscreens.
Optima Verdana in suburban Chicago includes retail offerings at street level and apartments above.
The Camelview Village condo development put Optima on the local design radar, with innovations such as landscaped balconies and open space, as well as an edgy, modernist design. According to architect and Scottsdale’s green building head, Anthony Floyd, both David Hovey Sr. and David Hovey Jr. lived in units on site. “That’s what I call proof of concept,” says Floyd. “They could see what worked—and what didn’t.”
In downtown Chicago, Optima Signature and Chicago Center includes 42- and 57-story towers, with forms, details and colors inspired by Russian painter Kazimir Malevich and American artist Donald Judd.
Also in Chicago, the Lakeview project features indoor open space as a response to the climate.
“Curves and Voids,” a sculpture by David Hovey Sr., graces the gardens at Sonoran Village.
“Our single-family homes are experimental. They are our ‘Case Study’ projects from which we take ideas and apply them to our multifamily work.”