Freelance contributor to widely read and respected architectural publication The Architect's Newspaper. My features cover Chicago and the Midwest.

Write regular news stories and features on innovative architecture, urban design, and adaptive reuse for living and working.

As Content Strategist, I developed all copy for Jennifer Ames Chicago's in-house marketing campaigns and deliverables (i.e. property brochures, flyers, mailers, email and social media marketing), as well as weekly print advertising copy and periodic magazine features. My responsibilities included PR outreach, interviews with sellers in their homes, documenting descriptive details and selling points for each property we represented, and communicating residential real estate market trends to sellers. I worked closely with our graphic designer and the Director of Marketing to strategize and execute on content and messaging.

Write weekly house tour articles for Dwell.com, with a focus on innovative modern new-builds, home expansions, and gut renovations. Send tips on great architecture to ian.spula@gmail.com!

Worked the real estate beat for print and web, co-produced and hosted a monthly video series examining Chicago neighborhoods, and periodically wrote architecture pieces when dovetailing with real estate.

Directed the blog Curbed Chicago as managing editor and contributed large share of the site's daily content; hired, trained, and managed rotating staff of 3-5 contributing writers and photographers; developed almost all feature ideas; produced content encompassing Chicago real estate concerns, architectural critique, urban planning, and neighborhood news. In 26 months on the job I was able to more than double monthly page views to 800k, grow newsletter subscription from 4,000 to 14,000, and push the ranks of twitter followers from about 1,500 to 4,370 at the close of 2013.

Contributed 3-5 weekly feature posts, sometimes including onsite photojournalism; pitched story ideas to editor.

Supervisory role with a non-profit fundraising organization, where I helped train and motivate small groups of street canvassers. Worked on the front line of campaigns for clients such as Save the Children, Sierra Club, Human Rights Campaign, and Greenpeace.