On Thursday the board of directors of the American Institute of Architects named Robert Ivy its new CEO. Ivy, who grew up in Columbus and for a time practiced architecture here, is editor and chief of Architectural Record.
When contacted Saturday afternoon, Ivy and his wife Holly, were looking at real estate in Georgetown, a Washington, D.C. neighborhood. The job will require a move from Brooklyn, N.Y., where they now have an apartment, to the D.C. area.
The position had been open since July. Ivy said he applied for the job after a number of people urged him to do so.
On Monday he got a call saying the executive committee of the 80,000-member organization had chosen him as its next CEO. On Thursday the entire board ratified the move in a unanimous vote. Robert and Holly hopped a train to D.C. and on Friday, he signed a contract in front of 54 people.
The AIA website describes itself as “the premiere organization representing licensed architects and professionals in the design and construction industry since 1857.”
“It”s a great honor and a great opportunity,” Ivy said Saturday.
As CEO Ivy will manage the organization”s national office in Washington, with its $56 million budget and 206 employees. And according to the AIA website, he will “direct organizational focus on design and practice issues within the Institute, enhance the voice of the AIA to demonstrate the value of design and the public”s understanding of architects and architecture and work collaboratively with over 300 chapters nationwide and overseas to support AIA members.”
As a principal with Ivy Architects, before his entry into the publishing world, Ivy renovated an old building on Market Street — the building now occupied by attorney David Dunn — for his firm”s office. He was also the managing partner with Dean Dale Dean and Ivy architects. He is a recipient of the Crane Award in 2009, the American Business Media”s top award for lifetime contributions to business media and in 2010 was recognized as Master Architect by Alpha Rho Chi, an architectural fraternity.
Architectural Record, the magazine Ivy has guided since 1996, is owned by McGraw-Hill. Additionally, Ivy is vice president and editorial director for the publishing company”s family of construction magazines. Presently, AR is distributed to AIA members as a membership benefit.
The editor-in-chief position at AR required Ivy to become globetrotter, traveling the world to see new buildings and meet architects. He wrote a column and blogged for the magazine. He says the new job will also require a lot of travel, most of it in the U.S.
A big part of the job, he says, will involve doing what he”s been doing, talking to architects. The move will take effect Feb. 1.
Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.
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