The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters has recently announced that renowned architect Robert Ivy is to be the next recipient of its Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award. Robert Ivy heads the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and has helped bring the art of architecture to a global audience. Many in the field consider Ivy to be one its most effective “ambassadors,” introducing his audiences to the wonders of architecture in a way that is easy to understand, without lessening the artistic and aesthetic value of complex architectural works.
Robert Ivy has held the position of AIA CEO since 2011, and, in the time since his tenure began, the group has seen its membership numbers surpass anything in the group’s more than 150 years of operation. That is quite an achievement for the man from Mississippi, with degrees from Sewanee: The University of the South and Tulane’s renowned School of Architecture. Ivy has used the lessons of his foundational years amongst the unique architectural designs of the American South to transform his field into one of the world’s great art forms.
Robert Ivy was previous honored with the Master Architect title, previously bestowed by Alpha Rho Chi on such architectural heavyweights as I.M. Pei and Mies van der Rohe. Ivy is only the 7th person, and first of the 21st Century, to ever receive the award. He also holds a Dean’s Medal from the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. It is with Fay Jones that Ivy’s career is most connected. He penned the definitive biography of Jones’s work back in 2001, “Fay Jones: Architect”.The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters is one of the state’s premier non-profit organizations devoted to higher learning. Previous recipients of the Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award include such diverse artists as Eudora Welty, Leontyne Price, and actor Morgan Freeman. Robert Ivy now joins this list of home-state luminaries as he continues to share the joys of architecture with the world.