Steve Ziger with Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson: WHILE AWAY

Join us for an evening with Steve Ziger, whose firm Ziger|Snead was the architect for the Ivy Bookshop! We're excited that he's just published a book, While Away: An Architect's Travel Sketches, and that we get to celebrate it at The Ivy.

And what a book this is: Part memoir, part travel guide, part drawing manual and architectural history, this captivating book features 240 ink, pencil, and watercolor sketches rendered over five decades. Ziger’s personal experiences are blended with insightful observations about the built environment and the wondrous potential of human-made design. This timely collection of sketches reminds us of the value of being present to the world around us, and the power of drawing to help us see, learn, and understand a place.

He'll be in conversation with the excellent Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, author of one of the bestselling biographies at the Ivy, Claire McCardell. This will be a one-of-a-kind event, and we hope to see you there!

Order WHILE AWAY here!

Order CLAIRE MCCARDELL here!

Steve Ziger, FAIA, co-founded Ziger|Snead Architects in Baltimore in 1984. Over four decades, he has worked closely with cultural, educational, nonprofit, and public institutions in Baltimore and beyond, strengthening the communities they serve through a commitment to design, collaboration, and civic engagement. His leadership helped establish Z|S as a nationally recognized design practice.

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson is the author of the critically acclaimed biography Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free, which was named one of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2025 and hailed as a best book of the year by NPR, Time, Kirkus, The Washington Post, Library Journal, and the New York Post, among many others. Claire McCardell was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, selected as an Amazon Editor’s pick for Best History, and chosen by the Maryland Center for the Book, in partnership with the Library of Congress, as its “Great Reads” selection for the 2026 National Book Festival. The New York Times called Claire McCardell an essential read, writing that “in the hands of Dickinson, this is more than just the biography of a fashion revolutionary: It is a story of the fight for women’s identity and, incidentally, the birth of an American industry.” Elizabeth is working on her second book, a true crime object biography about the famous Ruby Slippers from the movie “The Wizard of Oz.” It’s forthcoming from Dutton.