American Institute of Architects CEO and EVP Robert Ivy will be honored with the Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award by the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

Given to currently active Mississippi-connected artists and art patrons, Ivy is the first architect to receive the Polk Award. The list of previous honorees includes actor Morgan Freeman (2007), writer Shelby Foote (2004), writer Eudora Welty (2001), singer Leontyne Price (2000), and the late artist Walter Anderson (1989).

AIA President Carl Elefante praised Ivy's selection, saying: "As the CEO of AIA since 2011, and as an author, editor and practicing architect, Robert Ivy is a worthy ambassador for our profession. This award comes as a crowning personal and professional achievement for him as a native of Mississippi. On behalf of the AIA, I am truly delighted to congratulate him on this unique honor."

Ivy's previous accolades include the designation Master Architect by the national architecture fraternity Alpha Rho Chi (joining the ranks of Mies van der Rohe, Richard Buckminster Fuller, and I.M. Pei) and the 2017 Dean’s Medal from the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture.

Robert Ivy will officially receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, along with stained-glass designer Andrew Cary Young of Pearl River Glass Studio, at a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters event on June 2.