David C. Hovey Sr. is chief executive officer (CEO) of Optima, Inc. Mr. David C. Hovey Sr. founded Optima in 1978 with the goal to reinvent multifamily residential housing by optimizing development, design and construction within a single company.
In Optima’s more than 46 years, Mr. David C. Hovey Sr. is responsible for the design and construction of over 7,000 condominium and apartment units across the metropolitan Chicago, Phoenix and Scottsdale Arizona areas.
Mr. David C. Hovey Sr.’s recent notable projects in Illinois include Optima Verdana, a mixed-use 100-unit luxury apartment building in Wilmette; Optima Lakeview, a mixed-use 7-story, 198-unit luxury apartment building in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood; Optima Signature, a mixed-use 57-story, 490-unit luxury apartment tower with more than 60,000 square feet of commercial space and an acre and a half of amenity space in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood; Optima Chicago Center, a 42-story 325-unit apartment tower in Streeterville; Optima Old Orchard Woods, a 668-unit luxury condominium and rental community consisting of three interconnected 20-story towers in Skokie, Ill.; Optima Horizons, a 16-story, 248-unit luxury condominium tower in downtown Evanston, Ill. with retail and commercial space. In Arizona, his work includes Optima Kierland Center, a 5-tower, 954-unit condominium and apartment development in Scottsdale; Optima Sonoran Village, a mixed-use 768-unit luxury apartment community in Scottsdale; Optima Biltmore Towers, a 230-unit luxury condominium building in Phoenix, and; Optima Camelview Village, a 700- unit luxury condominium development in Scottsdale, Ariz.
He was awarded both his Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Science in architecture by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Mr. Hovey returned to the architecture program at IIT as an associate professor, a position he held for more than 35 years.
Mr. David C. Hovey Sr. is a Fellow of The American Institute of Architects (FAIA) – the highest membership honor for AIA members. His work has earned numerous awards for excellence in architecture, planning and green design, and has been presented in two published works, The Nature of Dwellings: The Architecture of David Hovey by Cheryl Kent published in 2004; and David Hovey by Cheryl Kent, Helmut Jahn, and Alex Marshall published in 2022.
