Optima, Inc. Senior Vice President Mark Segal joins John Williams to describe the learning pods his company is providing to e-learning students in high rise Optima Signature residential buildings.

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For Mark Segal, Senior Vice President at Glencoe, Ill.-based Optima, which operates luxury high-rise apartment buildings in Chicago and Arizona, taking a white-glove approach has been a labor-intensive, but effective, way of getting packages to residents’ doors. Staffers drop packages outside individual doors on a daily basis.

First, team members, wearing masks and gloves, place the package outside of the apartment home, Segal says. “We [later] do a sweep through the hallways of the community, and if the package isn’t picked up as of a certain time of day by the resident and brought into their home, we return [it to] our storage system.” It’s both a service and an amenity, he adds.

Segal says the system keeps residents from congregating around crowded locker rooms, coming into contact with one another and having to touch other people’s packages. While the service involves staff time and effort, Segal says he’s also realized other benefits from it.

“Beyond the service itself, we have more regular interaction in different areas of the community by our team members,” Segal says. “So they’re experiencing what’s going on, and if they notice anything that could be touched up, for example, along the way, they let the team know. It’s helping us with overall maintenance of the community, because you have more eyes on what’s happening.”

Read the full feature on NAA News

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School is in session at the Optima Signature, a 56-story apartment tower in Streeterville.

Glencoe-based developer and architectural firm Optima is converting four of its 25 office suites in the 490-unit tower into classrooms, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The plan calls for “pandemic pods” that allow small groups of students to study together in person with a tutor, teacher or parent, the Tribune reported.

Long-term closures of daycare facilities and schools have pushed some real estate firms to think outside the box.

“For people who are living in the downtown environment, where they might be sharing a smaller space with two working parents and kids, those spaces can get small and loud and distracting,” Optima’s Ali Burnham told the Tribune. “Here, you’re not fighting for space.”

Interest will likely come from families whose children attend the Montessori school in the tower, which is located at 220 E. Illinois St., according to Burnham. The suites cost between $1,800 and $2,400 per month and do not include teachers or tutors.

Read the full feature at The Real Deal Chicago

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Back in the day, moving up to the corner office was a sure sign you’d made it. Offering greater room, abundant natural light from two walls of windows and dual perspectives on streetscapes below, a corner office was a coveted badge of success. But with more folks working from home, the corner office’s cache may be shifting to corner condominiums and apartments.

Optima Signature

Streeterville provides a dynamic backdrop for the luxury tower Optima Signature, situated steps from the city’s “Magnificent Mile” of Michigan Avenue. With an eye to creating dramatic views, the developer, Optima, expressly designed the building’s corner units with the intention of creating column-free perspectives.

The post-tensioned concrete structure incorporates a two-way cantilevered slab. The column was placed between the kitchen and living area rather than in the traditional corner, to ensure the layouts of residences delivered unobstructed, eye-popping views from the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

Read the full feature on Forbes

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Streeterville’s Optima Signature Leases Space as Solution for Parents Working From Home

Necessity is the mother of innovation, and in this case, it’s finding a place to settle kids into remote school learning during the coronavirus pandemic when there’s not enough room at home.

Optima Signature found a way to lease unused space and solve the problem at the same time: turn business suites in the 57-story, multifamily Streeterville complex in Chicago into e-learning labs.

It creates a reprieve for dual-working parents with children at a time when the Chicago Public School system, among others, said all learning this fall will be done online. “It’s a place at home away from home,” said Ali Burnham, Optima’s marketing director at the 490-unit high-end tower.

Built in 2017 by Optima, based in suburban Glencoe, Illinois, the building at 220 E. Illinois St. stands out with its multistory, bright-red, glass exterior right above its base against a cluster of blue-glass buildings and concrete parking structures.

Besides the luxury one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in the mixed-use tower, it also is home to Guidepost Montessori at Magnificent Mile, the Streeterville outpost for toddlers to elementary-aged children with a Spanish immersion program.

The suites, which can be used for young elementary school-aged children as well as those in middle and high school, are pretty much already suited for e-learning with five to seven workstations, a minifridge, built-in cabinetry and outdoor space. And, of course, they’re cleaned professionally on a regular basis.

They all come with Wi-Fi and have access to the site’s 1.5 acres of amenities that include plenty of outdoor lounges, a basketball court, a pool and lots of running and playground space, Burnham said. What’s more, they’re open to nonresidents too.

“The workstations are perfectly set up already for middle school or high school students,” she said. “They just have to bring their things.” For younger children, there’s a 500-square-foot suite that includes a lot of open space that can be used for workstations, art projects, reading hubs and music.

Read the full feature at Costar

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When it comes to the home and design trends experts anticipate prevailing in the year ahead, the overarching theme will be options in abundance.

While homeowners continue to want their outdoor spaces that offer a safe retreat, that appeal has shifted into other parts of the home, coupling comfort with function. In other words, homeowners want amenities for work and leisure, and they plan to enjoy long them long after the pandemic.

Here are 10 trends to watch in 2021.

7. What it is: Grander staircases

Why now: Entryways into a house became the star a few years ago with the rise of mudrooms for organizing backpacks, jackets, and boots in cubbies—maybe even including a place to bathe Fido. The spotlight has now shifted to playing up the main staircase’s size, shape, and detailing to add “wow” to a first impression. This may include replacing the treads, risers, and handrails, and possibly adding a runner.

“Staircases are, by their nature, incredibly sculptural, so they are the perfect architectural feature that can be exploited in a variety of ways,” says architect Bob Zuber with Chicago-based Morgante Wilson Architects. “They can be overly grand, stripped down to the bare essentials, modern, or super traditional, warm, and cozy, or industrial and techy.”

The trend is gaining speed in multifamily buildings, too. One Bennett Park, a luxury residence in Chicago developed by Related Midwest and designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, has an Art Deco staircase that winds between two amenity floors with an ornamental brass railing and steps made of two contrasting, polished marbles. At the Optima Signature Chicago building, architect David Hovey Sr. gave a staircase vivid pops of yellow and orange.

Read the full feature on Realtor Magazine

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