Robert Livesey is a professor emeritus of architecture at the Knowlton School. In 1983, Livesey came to Ohio State to become Chair of the Department of Architecture, a role he held until 1991. From 1997 to 2005, he served as the Director of the Knowlton School. Livesey served as interim head of the Landscape Architecture Section from 2011 to 2013. He then served as Head of the Architecture Section until his retirement in 2017.
Livesey has won numerous teaching awards including the Judith Capen Teaching Award at Yale University, and the AIA Ohio Teaching Award, and two Design Intelligence top 30 design teachers awards. In 2012, Livesey was inducted as an honorary member of Class 106 of the SPHINX Senior Class Honorary, an Ohio State student organization that, each year, inducts honorary members into the organization because of their unparalleled impact on and service to the University. In 2016, Livesey received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching from The Ohio State University. That award recognizes up to ten faculty members for their teaching excellence.
Livesey has won numerous design awards including a Citation from Progressive Architecture for Maison Truc, an AIA Columbus Award for Harold Nestor Hall, and the AIA Ohio 2010 Gold Medal Award, the highest honor that AIA Ohio can bestow on an individual, conferred in recognition of exemplary efforts and significant accomplishments. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and of the American Academy in Rome. Livesey has served on the boards of both AIA Columbus and AIA Ohio, and the Columbus Architecture Foundation. He has also served on the boards of the Columbus Design Center and the Columbus City Schools Neighborhood School Development Partnership.
Livesey received an AB in Architecture from Princeton University and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University. He was also awarded the Sheldon Traveling Fellowship from Harvard and won the Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome.