Insider-Outsider: The Iva Agency's Iva Kravitz on Life Experience, Organizational Behavior, and Hopeful Ideas
By Julia Gamolina
Iva Kravitz, Associate AIA, has spent her career immersed in the business of the built environment. Working with architects and all kinds of designers, she has helped many firms better define their goals, strategies and communications. A graduate of the University of Vermont — including a year at Université de Nice, France — Iva has studied at Harvard University, NYU and Baruch College. Clients include COOKFOX Architects, Surfacedesign and LaGuardia Design Group, landscape architects, and others. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Iva talks about developing a skillset and continued education, advising those just starting their careers to keep learning and take risks.
JG: How did you come to architecture with your communications skill set?
IK: After college, I didn’t know what I wanted to “be”. In between graduating from the University of Vermont and getting married, which was a seven year stretch, I worked at a law firm; at several restaurants; at an exhibit design office; at Paine Webber, a Wall Street business; at Bozell & Jacobs, an ad agency; and then at Hill & Knowlton, a big PR firm. I took any next job because I had to pay rent, period.
At Hill & Knowlton though, I worked closely with my boss on marketing our services, which taught me how to market a professional service. I left to get married — to a designer — and immediately started my own consultancy; so many of our friends were architects and designers who seemed that they could use help marketing.
Iva speaking at SMPS Maryland GROW Conference in March 2019. Courtesy of Iva Kravitz.
Tell me about your company, the Iva Agency, and how you’ve evolved it over the years.
Given the situation I described — how little I knew and how random my work was — the early days were pretty rough. It felt like everyone I knew had advanced degrees in business or law. I had no MBA or credentials, very little confidence and a small network. In those early years there was a lot of stress in my life and marriage; I had young kids, no emotional support and very little money. But I knew I had a good idea and that I could help these small firms, in large part because owners were simply not focused on marketing.
Then in the mid-90’s I took a salaried job as the marketing director at Two Twelve, environmental graphic designers, and at the same time managed to keep working with my favorite existing client one day a week, restaurant designers whose studio was a block away in Soho. It was a revelation to realize that going to work every day in an office wasn’t soul crushing; rather it was liberating because I loved the work, and was successful at both firms. At the age of almost 40, I started feeling deeply happy about my profession. I wasn’t yet feeling confident, but around that time I started thinking about the advice I’d given clients over the previous ten years and realized that virtually all of it was right. I took many jobs and gigs in the 2000’s, slowly building a large and lovely network of friends and colleagues, a robust portfolio of materials and clippings and started acknowledging successes in that I watched clients grow with larger and better projects.
How did you come to the focus that the Iva Agency in known for?
In 2012, my friend Mary Van offered me a spot in a weekend branding workshop that in retrospect was life-changing. I went because I wanted a new name for my business, but at the end of the two days I came out with a much greater understanding of my potential and my place in the community: I realized that I wanted my work to more closely align with my values and adopted the tagline “design marketing that matters.” It took several years but I started, from then on, to try to find clients who were working either socially or environmentally responsibly, in line with what I think is important: addressing the climate crisis, acknowledging and working to fix systemic racism, living and acting ethically. At the moment I have the ultimate luxury of only working with people I like and whose work I think is important and meaningful.
“I’d like to think I’m exposing large numbers of people, through publishing our clients’ work, to front-end ideas about solving urban problems via new materials, systems or different approaches.”
You touched on this a little already, but looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
There were many setbacks — I could write pages and pages on the topic. In 2001 I left my wonderful Soho restaurant designers because I thought I wanted to learn more. I moved to a global, 250-person architectural office that designed hotels all over the world. There were seventeen partners, five of whom were managing partners. Even though most of them were basically good people, when the five were together they became wildly toxic to each other. The juggling, back-biting and lying was incredible. I was an utter failure at that company. The way leadership behaved was not how I live or behave. I could never get my bearings in that environment. Then 9/11 happened, the hotel industry tanked, and I left, pretty deeply traumatized. I thought about how to stay in architecture but not work for partnerships; they seemed like a bad idea to me.
Another crossroads came when a client I loved, Guenther 5 Architects, was purchased by Perkins + Will in 2007. To a great extent I felt I was a victim of my own success; Perkins + Will had a strong national healthcare practice but needed a better client base in New York. Every time they opened a magazine — Interior Design, Health Care Design, Contract, Metropolis, many others — they saw thoughtful, beautiful healthcare design with carefully researched, non-toxic materials by Guenther 5. After the purchase I tried to negotiate a special PR role, working with Robin Guenther and another sustainability leader, but it fell through and I had to walk away, which was heartbreaking.
More generally, it’s always challenging to keep up with technology, and with the uber-speedy pace of change in our lives. We are all expected to read and respond to every email within minutes, and to answer questions just as quickly. I am very aware of the lightning speed at which business works now, and know that if you want time to think, you have to build that into your schedule and create some boundaries.
“New York Times Square Feet column, March 15, 2022. Patrick Sisson described how work by client Surfacedesign landscape architects on the Expedia campus in Seattle restored and repaired a former brownfield site.”
“As the Financial Times reporter covering New York City, it took Joshua Chaffin two years to visit the COOKFOX studio, but once he met Rick Cook, he was captivated by both Rick personally and by the core ideas of COOKFOX’s practice: designing via principles of biophilia, even in dense urban environments.”
What have you also learned in the last six months?
In the last six months, I’ve tried to continue to learn some important behaviors I’ve been working on. I’m trying to judge people and situations less, to be more neutral, to observe more, and certainly to stay open-minded. I’m trying to be more self-aware and to continue to be more empathetic. I am trying to learn to be calmer and more thoughtful.
What are you most excited about right now?
Having spent decades going in and out of architectural offices as an insider-outsider, I’ve observed many different management styles. I’ve become fascinated by organizational behavior, the way people communicate interpersonally, conflict resolution, leadership, and succession planning. I have been studying organizational development, and in the past few years have started working with clients on their branding and messaging a much more global, strategic way. That has been thrilling.
Beyond that I am trying to keep climate grief at bay, and to focus on the hopeful ideas that many smart people are working on: low-carbon concrete, living buildings, deeply restorative landscapes, full life-cycle pathways, photovoltaic sidewalks, smart cities, micro-forests, anything that improves our environmental conditions.
“At a basic level, I think architects tend to separate themselves from their work, as though their own experiences, exposure and lives have no relationship to their practice...The answers are always in the life experience, values and thinking of the staff and leadership.”
Who are you admiring now and why?
I’ve been a fan of Mass Design Group for a long time, having become aware of them when the Butara Hospital in Rwanda first opened. I’ve since met Katie Swenson and Sierra Bainbridge, I admire both for their commitments to both the work and ethos of the firm. I admire the work of Vishan Chakarbati, whose ideas on density, land use and planning are super-intelligent. I wish more people involved in real estate and policy shared his thinking. I also admire my client Rick Cook of COOKFOX Architects, who is a wonderful person and an inspiring leader. He really lives his values. On a national scale I think Stacey Abrams is a towering hero: she is smart and brave and not afraid to speak truth to power.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
I’d like to think I’m exposing large numbers of people, through publishing our clients’ work, to front-end ideas about solving urban problems via new materials, systems or different approaches. I’m constantly thinking of how the built environment can be less destructive to the environment, a core conflict in architecture and development. I try to nudge clients toward higher goals for sustainability and, honestly, for policies like banishing vinyl from their libraries, although that is decidedly not in my job description. I’d like to think I’m an effective voice for sharing constructive, important information about positive changes in the way architecture and design can address some of the huge problems we face. That said, I’m pretty sure I am not doing enough to promote the changes I’d like to see. I am working on figuring out how to fix that.
“Client George Smart, Executive Director of non-profit USModernist, found a modernist house designed by mid-century architect Gregory Ain that had been “lost" since the 1950’s. Eve Kahn wrote about its unexpected and wonderful family owners for the New York Times in May 2021.”
What is the number one advice you'd give to architects on all things marketing and communication?
At a basic level, I think architects tend to separate themselves from their work, as though their own experiences, exposure and lives have no relationship to their practice. Hence the ubiquitous firm profile text, “We are excellent listeners and problem solvers.” Of course you are – you are architects. I urge my clients who are architects to clarify and state their values first, because that is so core to every decision going forward, and then to dig into their practice to describe their firm’s DNA, why anyone hires them, and what they can say about their approach or practice that no one else can say. The answers are always in the life experience, values and thinking of the staff and leadership.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
At this point in my career, I finally feel confident and successful, but it has taken me way too long. I wish I had more confidence when I was younger, and I think generally women do now, a huge and positive change. I wish I had taken more risks — although I realize that’s easier to say than to do if you don’t have a big safety net. Take as much risk as you can. Even when it’s stressful and expensive I think if you can continue your education — another degree, a certificate, a course completion — it is always worth the effort; it will pay you back in the end! Try to be self-aware; consider context as you act and say things. Don’t burn bridges. It’s a small community; be kind, generous, professional and respectful.