Architectural Record received magazine publishing’s highest honor, the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, an award to Ivy, its editor-in-chief, and a rare tribute for a trade publication. Additionally, from 1998-2010, the publication received dozens of Jesse Neal awards for business journalism awarded by the American Business Press. Among Ivy’s most significant awards are the following:
2020 National Institute of Building Science, Mortimer M. Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award.
2018 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters, Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award, the first architect so awarded.
2017 The University of Arkansas, Dean’s Medal, Fay Jones School of Architecture
2015 Tau Sigma Delta, Silver Medal, , honorary architectural achievement in higher education
2010 Master Architect: Alpha Rho Chi, Architectural fraternity, a mentoring role for young architects
2009 Crane Award, lifetime achievement in Business Journalism
2008 Tongji University - School of Architecture & Urban Planning, Shanghai China-First International Advisory Board-member
Space Magazine, Seoul, Korea-Advisory Board Member
2000 Design Futures Council, Fellow. Invitation-only leadership group.
2000 Tulane University School of Architecture -Advisory Board member for several terms, and today (2024)
2005 Rural Studio, Auburn University- Advisory Board member for over a decade and speaker for the 25th anniversary
2003 National Society of Magazine Editors, National Magazine Award, (Architectural Record)
1998 Rembrandt Society- Brooklyn New York Member
1988 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters- Board of Directors then and today (2024)
1981 Center for Study of Southern Culture- Advisory Board member
1999 Philippine Institute of Architects Honorary Fellow
1998 U.S. General Services Administration- Design Excellence Peer (to present)
1992 George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award for outstanding publications in the visual arts and architecture (Fay Jones: Architecture, 1993)
1991 American Institute of Architects- Fellow
American Institute of Architects, CEO (2011-2021)
He has been a featured speaker since 1996 for scores of national groups as diverse as the US Conference of Mayors, Chicago’s Art Institute, and the Library of Congress.
Under Ivy’s leadership, Business Week and Architectural Record co- sponsored a design event entitled, “Good Design is Good Business”, which highlighted architecture’s role in commerce and industry—an effort that garnered wide attention in the business community for over 10 years.
As Editor-in-Chief of Architectural Record, Ivy was regularly interviewed by media, including major television networks (CNN, NBC), radio broadcasts (NPR), and online. Additionally, he has served as co-producer for video documentaries.
His role as lecturer, panelist, and moderator continues to this day. In 2024, he addressed the Design Committee of the Texas Society of Architects on contemporary French architecture at Chateau LaCoste, near Aix-en-Provence, and the following month he spoke to the AIA national committee on design in Thorncrown Chapel designed by Fay Jones, FAIA
Ivy has regularly addressed university audiences including, recently, the University of Arkansas and the Recognition Day lecture at the Mississippi State University Department of Art, Architecture, and Design.
Ivy has been a prolific writer and contributor to publications. In addition to monthly editorials and articles throughout his long tenure at Architectural Record, he has contributed introductions, prefaces, forewords, essays, and articles to books about the built environment. His written work on the architect, E. Fay Jones, FAIA, is the standard today, and he continues to write about Jones and his contributions to contemporary architecture. A representative sampling of Ivy’s work is below:
Architecture section--Author and Contributing Editor.
Ongoing publication:
Throughout his career in Mississippi, Ivy maintained a dual career, as an architect and as a writer. Ivy’s writing experience centered on the work of contemporary architects in the American South, a subject he pioneered and mastered. Beginning in 1977, he wrote regularly for a list of publications, including Architecture South, a 10,000-circulation publication he co-founded and disseminated in 5 states for the Gulf States region of the AIA. Among other roles, he guest edited an issue of a Japanese journal, A+U, and wrote as a contributing editor regularly for The AIA Journal and Architecture magazine, all before becoming editor in chief of Architectural Record in 1996.
Robert Ivy has served as a frequent jury member and chairperson, adjudicating honor awards and selection committees:
2024 Moderator and Speaker Panel of former deans and department heads gathered for 50th anniversary of the College of Architecture, Art, and Design at Mississippi State University
2024 GSA Design Excellence Jury, to choose the architect for the Chattanooga federal courthouse.
2022 Thomas Jefferson Award, University of Virginia. Ivy has served as an ongoing juror for this prestigious prize for 3 years.
2016 Inaugural Jury Chair, the Aydelott Essay Prize. This award recognizes the best essay by a winner of the Aydelott Prize for 5 southern collegiate schools of architecture. (Ongoing as jury chair since inception)
2016 GSA Design Excellence Jury. Professional peer on the design of the Greenville, MS federal courthouse, choosing the architect and assisting in design critique as the program progresses.
2013 The President’s Awards for Designer of the Year, Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore (Two occasions-jury chair)
2010 Net Zero Energy Show House, Jury Chair, Preservation Resource Center/Architectural Record, New Orleans, Louisiana
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Missouri, Jury Chair
AIA California Council, Honor Awards Jury (held virtually)
2009 AIA Central States Region Excellence in Design Awards
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Green Community Student Competition Jury
GSA, Eisenhower Memorial Jury- Washington DC
2008 AIA Education Honor Awards Jury
American Society of Landscape Architects: Honor Awards
2007 AIA Committee on Architecture for Education: Educational Facilities Design Awards Program
University of Hawaii, School of Architecture: Kenneth F. Brown Asia-Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award
2006 Katrina Jury “High Density for the High Ground- Tulane University/Architectural Record- Jury Chair
Inform Awards Jury Chair
2005 – 2008 National Magazine Awards - Juror
National AIA Architectural Photography Competition
American Civil Engineers Award
Gensler’s Design Excellence Award Program
Steelcase - Wreath, Menorah, and Stocking Competition
AIA Los Angeles Design Awards Jury
Head Juror for the Cleveland AIA Community Design Awards
American Institute of Architects, CEO (2011-2021)
Played a major role in clarifying and democratizing the pipeline to becoming an architect, employing staff members and volunteers from groups like “Equity and the Future of Architecture” Commission.
AIA took strong stands on EDI, formed volunteer-led work groups, and published major research and literature for practitioners (AIA’s Guides for Equitable Practice—a nine-volume work).
Partnered with the newly-formed Architects’ Foundation to promote scholarships and grants for students, women, and emerging professionals.
Made strategic partnerships with private equity to ensure continual investment and digital advancement in most valuable AIA line of business, contract documents, while retaining significant ownership stake for future.
Developed strong and active partnerships to enhance other critical AIA businesses, including its specification writing intellectual property.
Created a large endowment for the association and its future with significant assets based on a strategic partnership.
Onboarded leading agencies and consultants to rebrand and reposition the AIA organization for contemporary brand identity, public outreach, live conferences, virtual events and campaign execution among others.
Among those engaged: Pentagram, LaPlaca/Cohen, Digital Prism, Kotter International, 360 Live Media, GSD&M.
Informed and influenced an audience of members--approximately 95,000 top-tier professionals--and global public audiences via high-touch communications.
Developed a national campaign to influence future architectural consumers, including mayors, influential citizens, other design professionals, including paid advertising (“Blueprint for Better”), social media, and a film challenge to attract young filmmakers and architects to produce films celebrating architecture’s power.
Speaker, panelist, moderator, host, or keynote at local, national, or international events with audiences ranging from 600-26,000 attendees, including major venues such as New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
Founded the Architects Foundation, a 501c3 supporting underserved and underrepresented communities through a variety of scholarships.
Longtime (over 20 years) Design Excellence Peer for US General Services Administration.
Currently the design peer with the GSA to choose the architect for the new Chattanooga Federal Courthouse.
Participated in advocacy meetings with federal regulators, agency heads, members of Congress (Senate and House), military officials, the Department of Defense, and specific leaders within multiple administrations (the NEA for design, for instance).
Led AIA through the COVID-19 Pandemic, pivoting overnight to become a virtual association while maintaining record-high membership and engagement, fiscal strength and policy breadth.
In the hyperbolic, divisive political climate of 2016, Ivy helped the board and the association turn toward its core values, ultimately growing membership and becoming a more values-driven organization.
Collaborated with the board of directors to introduce twin top priorities of climate action and dismantling systemic racism.
Employed former Attorney General Eric Holder from Covington Law Firm and as advisor to address broad societal concern of sexual harassment.
Founder of CEO Summit, an active gathering of leading CEOs in the design and construction space devoted to climate action.
Co-Founder of Resilience Coalition, with 53 association members related to design and construction sector dedicated to resilient planning.
Founded quarterly international CEO forum involving 7 nations (US, UK, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand).
Invited to address to the annual national gathering of German architects at their annual business meeting in 2018.
Fluency in French language—reading and speaking.
Directed the renovation of 1735 New York Avenue (Washington, DC), designed by The Architects Collaborative in Boston, Massachusetts for the AIA in 1973, for new ways of working and to achieve ambitious goals in equity, sustainability and carbon neutrality, public health, and post-pandemic workforce transformation
Hired Stephen Ayers, FAIA, former Architect of the Capitol, to serve as Project Executive
Hired Quinn Evans Architects to prepare the Basis of Design document and assess the current physical condition of all building systems.
Selected EHDD Architects, a leader in sustainable design, to prepare programmatic and design drawings for future workplace, incorporating carbon neutral and equity goals.
U.S. Modernist, advisory board.
National Building Museum: Ex Officio, active board member, advisor donor
1735 Investment Fund, LLC: Chairperson, fiduciary role for AIA’s primary new investment fund - 2020
ACD Corporation:Founding member, corporation managing AIA’s repositioned contract documents business.
Richard Morris Hunt Award:Chairperson and Jury Chair of bi- lateral French/American award
Real Estate Executives Summit:Founding member
Resilience Coalition—Co-Founder
AIA Foundation—twice a board member of philanthropic arm of AIA, first in 1993.
American Institute of Architects—board member, 1993-1996.
1981-95 Adjunct Faculty: Mississippi State University- Intermittent Studio Design Teacher: 1-4th year
2000 Yale University- Guest lecturer in professional practice (occasional)
2000-09 Syracuse University Arts Journalism- Distinguished Visiting Faculty in architectural criticism
2022 University of Arkansas Fay Jones Distinguished Practitioner teaching seminar on “A Life in Design”
M. Arch., Tulane University
B.A. (cum laude) in English, Sewanee: The University of the South
Practicing Architect, Robert was a firm principal and partner in Dean/Dale/Dean and Ivy, and later Ivy Architects, managing a successful practice in his hometown in the 1980s-1996.
Intelligence Officer, US Navy. Lieutenant, US Naval Reserve, on active duty from 1970-1973, and an active reservist through 1977, with primary assignments to the Fleet Intelligence Center, Norfolk, VA and the Fleet Intelligence Center, Pacific, Subic Bay, the Philippines.
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