The Iva Agency | design marketing that matters
Mid 2018!
I have to be honest- the interruption in this blog posting started as a fairly serious malaise in the wake of the 2016 election. It felt like a struggle to get through the first half of 2017, and honestly it is still tough, every day – even with a modified news moratorium in place – to see the headlines and not to be discouraged. June brings sunshine and warmth, gardens that embrace the heat and rain, and for me, hopefulness. Starting to settle into a summer schedule. Happy early summer, everyone.
read moreThe Iva Agency 2018 New Years Message
It is time to re-engage and to re-dedicate ourselves to important ideas and work. With this in mind, we send greetings for the new year and good hopes for 2018. We look forward to a re-start, to exciting collaborations and to new opportunities.
read more
Landscape Architecture: The Profession
Buildings are tangible and real, and after 9/11 all urban citizens understood that buildings are symbols, icons, tangible manifestations of our aspirations. Landscape, however, is quiet. Open space is the absence of something, not a thing. Yet that space is integral...
read more
Affordable Housing
We started working with MAP Architects last summer. Since their primary area of expertise is affordable housing, and since that happens to also be a HUGE area of interest for the mayor and his administration right now, it seemed reasonable and responsible to...
read more
London in April
If you've only seen London in movies and TV shows, like I had until last week, you'd imagine that there are a few streets where historical dramas are filmed, and a couple of neighborhoods that are pretty, and then, perhaps, like me, you'd think that the rest is urban...
read more
Three Lectures
I have heard three fantastic lectures in the past six weeks, and that it has made me rethink in wonderful, questioning ways about some of my long-held opinions about urban planning, buildings and the economy. I'm not going to go on and on, but I recommend hearing any...
read more
Haunting Images
Several months ago, there was a flurry of interest in micro-housing in New York. The Museum of the City of New York opened an exhibit that displayed the winners of a city-sponsored competition to design very, very small apartments - smaller than are now considered...
read more
The Story of Stuff and the New Year
Several years ago I was at a client office (Guenther 5 Architects, which became part of Perkins + Will New York) when a group of us gathered around somebody's computer one afternoon to watch a very smart, cogent, animated film called The Story of Stuff. In it, a...
read more
Thursday, November 15
A recurring theme in my life, and probably yours too, if you live in New York, is that we have astounding access to people, information, events and ideas here. Infrequently it's overwhelming; more often it simply creates richly textured days. On Thursday the 15th I...
read more
Post-Hurricane
Park Slope was luckier than many neighborhoods; we never lost heat or electricity. We lost many trees, some of which fell on cars, others just blocked the streets. But it was minor inconvenience given what the rest of New York and the suburbs went through - and are...
read more