Professional Profile: Stephen Alton, 2014

Name: Stephen Alton Title: Owner Company: Stephen Alton Architect PC Location: 1407 Broadway, Suite 1715, New York, N.Y. Birthplace: Memphis, Tenn. Education: Rhode Island School of Design First job in real estate or allied field: Intern at Street and Street Architects in Nashville, TN. What do you do now and what are you planning for the future? I'm the principal of SAA presently and don't want to ever stop that but I do like the idea of creating larger things with a similar approach to design that we have forged. We just started designing faucets and fixtures for Lefroy Brooks and it's very interesting. We are working on a very large design competition of over 3 million s/f, so getting a project at that scale would certainly be a dream come true. How do you unwind from a busy day in real estate? Practice guitar, sing and play with my 17-year-old Jack Russell terrier. Provided he will wake up. Favorite book or author: Tennessee Williams Favorite movie: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" Last song you purchased/downloaded? "Royals" by Lorde One word to describe your work environment: Fun and intense Rules to live by in business: Have confidence in your talent and engage with clients and collaborators as your work gets better. I like to pick the minds of the developers, marketing experts, property managers, engineers, painters, cabinet makers and basically anyone that really has a role in the project we're working on. If you could invite one person to dinner (living or dead) who would it be and where would you go? Oscar Wilde at his house. What is your dream job? To work with forward-thinking developers, engineers and creative designers on a large mixed-use project whose goals would be to advance sustainable design, incubate new forms of program and develop living cities.