When Niles Bolton imagined how large his firm would get, he expected some 17 employees and a handful of partners. Today, Niles Bolton Associates has that many partners and over 100 employees as one of Atlanta's largest architectural firms. His roots in the market are deep: A Georgia Tech grad (like his father), he served in the Vietnam War, and then began his design career at Heery & Heery Architects (now Heery International) under George Heery. But by the time 1975 rolled about, Niles says he decided to venture out on his own. "It was bad economic times, but I decided if I could make it then, I could make it any time." (Someone call Frank Sinatra, Jr. We've got an update.)

One of Niles' first assignments was to design the former Fox & Hounds restaurant in Buckhead, but his little firm really took off after he was tapped by Post Properties' John Williams and Trammell Crow Residential to design multifamily projects during a housing boom. He became an international name during the '96 Summer Games, after his firm designed the Olympic Village apartments. He's still heavily involved in major multifamily developments across the country, including Ambling's new student housing projects near Georgia Tech and Georgia State, and he recently completed the designs on the $239M Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student housing complex.