FAIA, AIA Executive Vice President and CEO
Closing Keynote by Robert Ivy
Ivy and his executive team led the repositioning of AIA to better reflect and adapt to changes in the marketplace and the profession, including the release of the Guides for Equitable Practice, which, through real-world case study and current research, examines how to create and maintain a more equitable, inclusive, and welcoming workplace. Ivy created and guides the creation of AIA’s Where We Stand Statements that articulate and advance the profession’s vision of positive change through the power of design. And guided by AIA’s Board of Directors and Strategic Council, Ivy and the AIA are realigning operations to reflect a renewed focus on the leadership role of architects in combating, mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Prior to joining the AIA, Ivy served as longtime Editor-in-Chief of McGraw-Hill’s Architectural Record, a venerable New York-based publication that became the most widely disseminated architectural journal worldwide. While Vice President and Editorial Director for McGraw-Hill’s design and construction media, Ivy and his colleagues took a leading role in New York City rebuilding plans following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
During his leadership, Architectural Record earned numerous awards, including the National Magazine Award for General Excellence – an unusual accomplishment for a professional publication – and numerous Jesse Neal awards for business journalism. Ivy also launched the U.S. Green Building Council magazine and 16 additional publications.
To date, Ivy is the author of more than 150 editorials and major stories on topics ranging from the role of monuments and memorials in contemporary society, to critical appreciations of contemporary trends.
Ivy is also the recipient of some of the most important and prestigious awards in the publishing and architectural professions, including the G.D. Crain Award for his lifetime contributions to the business media. Ivy is one of a few living recipients of the title “Master Architect” by Alpha Rho Chi, an architectural organization. Ivy was honored in 2018 with the Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.
Ivy’s book, Fay Jones: Architect, was cited for the “highest standards of scholarship, design, and production.”
His latest book, Chateau LaCoste : Art & Architecture in Provence, is scheduled for release in the summer of 2020.
Ivy earned an M.Arch. degree from Tulane University, and a BA (cum laude) in English from the University of the South (TN). He is a member of CICA, the International Circle of Architecture Critics.
Prior to his career in New York and Washington, Ivy practiced architecture in Columbus, Mississippi, his hometown, where he maintains a historic home in which he and his wife Holly raised their three children.
