Bison Across the Mountain West, Hawaii: former NDSU footballer thrives as Honolulu architect

Your time at NDSU can take your life in directions you never saw coming. For alumnus Steve Marlette, his Bison experience started as a football player on a farm in South Dakota and led him to become a successful architect more than 4,000 miles from home. As the founder of MC Architects in Honolulu, Marlette has helped shape commercial development across Hawaii for three decades.

A 1985 graduate of North Dakota State University's architecture program, Marlette founded MC Architects in 1995 after relocating from Seattle to Hawaii. Since then, his firm has completed a wide range of projects throughout the islands.

"I started MC Architects a little over 30 years ago here in Honolulu," Marlette said. "We've been very, very busy doing everything from retail centers to schools to a lot of restaurants and industrial — a little bit of everything on the commercial side."

Now easing toward retirement, Marlette has reduced his workload while transitioning responsibilities to employees who have helped continue the firm's legacy.

Looking back, he said the most rewarding part of architecture has always been finding solutions to complex problems.

"It's like playing a game every day, solving problems," Marlette said. "I get a lot of people who come to me and say, 'I have a piece of land. What can I do with it?' We dream on it for a while, and work to come up with a good idea that hits."

From Ball to Blueprints

Marlette's path to architecture began far from Hawaii. Growing up on a farm near Redfield, South Dakota, he knew he wanted to pursue opportunities beyond agriculture. He initially came to NDSU with plans to study architectural engineering while also playing football for the Bison.

A scheduling mix-up placed him in architecture courses instead, a twist of fate that ultimately defined his career. As the demands of the architecture program intensified after his first year on campus, Marlette chose to focus on academics rather than athletics.

The rigorous program proved transformative.

"The biggest thing that architecture school taught me is overall analysis of situations and critical thinking," Marlette said. "That concept of critical analysis and critical thinking leads into so many other things."

Those skills opened doors beyond traditional architecture. Throughout his career, Marlette expanded into real estate development, investment properties and health care facilities serving people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

"But it's that critical thinking and the analysis that sort of leads you to every element of life," he reiterated.

Life-Changing New Perspectives

Marlette also credits NDSU's faculty and study abroad opportunities for broadening his way of thinking. He said instructors from around the world introduced students to different approaches to design and problem-solving, while a European studies program exposed him to architecture and cultures across multiple countries.

"The architecture we learned about was very informative, but the people, including the instructors and the whole cultural exposure you see to the rest of the world, were extremely enlightening," Marlette said.

As he reflects on his education, Marlette believes NDSU's architecture program provided an exceptional foundation for success.

"Everybody says the same thing," he said of his former classmates. "We got an unbelievable education there and unbelievable opportunities."

FBS Jump Brings NDSU to Steve

Although he built his career thousands of miles from Fargo, Marlette remains connected to the university and follows Bison athletics closely. He is particularly looking forward to the opportunity to host fellow Bison fans when the team visits Honolulu for Mountain West Conference games at the University of Hawaii.

"Absolutely," Marlette said when asked if he was excited about the Bison’s transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision. "Even more exciting is they're coming out to Hawaii."

A longtime supporter of the program, Marlette plans to attend the game with family and friends while proudly representing NDSU.

"I'll definitely be cheering for NDSU," he said. "We're going to be wearing all of our NDSU gear, and we'll be sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of the University of Hawaii crowd."

For Marlette, the journey from a small South Dakota farming community to leading an architectural firm in Honolulu began with an opportunity at NDSU. Forty years later, the lessons he learned in Fargo continue to influence both his career and his perspective on life.

See where an NDSU degree can take you by applying today or scheduling a visit.

Bison Across the Mountain West is an ongoing series to spotlight NDSU alumni who have already blazed their trails in the regions where Bison Football will be traveling for Mountain West Conference games. A new story will run the Thursday before every football in-conference away game, corresponding to the area of that week's opponent.

NDSU Marketing and Communications
Source: Steve Marlette
Writer: Paul Teeple
Photo: Steve Marlette