Eva writes books and articles. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, Wallpaper*, Metropolis, Curbed, Interior Design, and more. She is the author of four critically-acclaimed books—When Eero Met His Match, How To Be Loved, Nature Framed, and Dark Nostalgia. Her work as a writer informs her advising and consulting, the two career tracks working in iterative relationship - just as designing and writing do.
Books
When Eero Met His Match
Aline B. Louchheim (1914–1972) was an art critic on assignment for the New York Times in 1953 when she first met the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. She would become his wife and the driving force behind his rise to critical prominence. When Eero Met His Match draws on the couple’s personal correspondence to reconstruct the early days of their thrilling courtship and traces Louchheim’s gradual takeover of Saarinen’s public narrative in the 1950s, the decade when his career soared to unprecedented heights.
Drawing on her own experiences as an architecture journalist on the receiving end of press pitches and then as a secret publicist for high-end architects, Eva Hagberg paints an unforgettable portrait of Louchheim while revealing the inner workings of a media world that has always relied on secrecy, friendship, and the exchange of favors. She describes how Louchheim codified the practices of architectural publicity that have become widely adopted today, and shows how, without Louchheim as his wife and publicist, Saarinen’s work would not have been nearly as well known.
Providing a new understanding of postwar architectural history in the United States, When Eero Met His Match is both a poignant love story and a superb biographical study that challenges us to reconsider the relationship between fame and media representation, and the ways the narratives of others can become our own.
“[An] unconventional biography. . . . the book’s true intellectual centre is the exploration of how architectural form is translated into ― and shaped by ― the stories we tell. . . . An accessible, elegant and exquisitely polymathic meditation on a complicated subject."---Stefan Novakovic, Azure Magazine
"When Eero Met His Match dives into the rarely seen lives of those behind the curtain of newspaper clippings and magazine articles. Part historical account, part personal memoir, Eva Hagberg's latest book unpacks the often secret and sometimes omniscient world of architectural publicity."---Kate Mazade, Madame Architect
"When Eero Met His Match is at once a personal journey for its author as it is an impeccably researched reconstruction of two important figures in modern architecture, sure to appeal to architects, students, and architectural historians alike."---Sean Ruthen, Spacing National
"A unique piece of media criticism. . . . [Hagberg] shines a light on the deep connection between words and visuals, media and memory, and how our experiences of the built world are filtered through the stories being told to us."---Jarrett Fuller, Fast Company
How to Be Loved
A luminous memoir about how friendship saved one woman’s life, for anyone who has loved a friend who was sick, grieving, or lost—and for anyone who has struggled to seek or accept help
Eva Hagberg spent her lonely youth looking everywhere for connection: drugs, alcohol, therapists, boyfriends, girlfriends. Sometimes she found it, but always temporarily. Then, at age thirty, an undiscovered mass in her brain ruptured. So did her life. A brain surgery marked only the beginning of a long journey, and when her illness hit a critical stage, it forced her to finally admit the long-suppressed truth: she was vulnerable, she needed help, and she longed to grow. She needed true friendship for the first time.
How to Be Loved is the story of how an isolated person’s life was ripped apart only to be gently stitched back together through friendship, and the recovery—of many stripes—that came along the way. It explores the isolation so many of us feel despite living in an age of constant connectivity; how our ambitions sometimes pull us apart more than bring us together; and how a simple doughnut, delivered by a caring soul, can become the essence of what makes a life valuable. With gorgeous prose shot through with empathy, pain, fear, and the secret truths inside all of us, Eva writes about the friends who taught her to grow up and open her heart—and how the relentlessness of suffering can give rise to the greatest joy.
“How to Be Loved is a memoir for the digital age, written briskly, almost like Facebook posts, with a sort of cheery brutality . . . For Hagberg, there is value in reaching out to others, in showing one’s soft belly. It’s dark stuff, but it comes as a relief, too: We’re in this together.” —Rachel Khong, New York Times Book Review
“A lovely memoir.” — People Magazine
“This remarkable read is both an illness-and-recovery memoir and a love story that’s unlike anything we’ve ever read. Hagberg’s book is about the radical surrender required by love and the resilience it offers in return.” —Apple Books
”It feels like sunshine, to find a writer who has already hacked a clear path through the jungle of their ideas for you, even when the subject matter is dark.” —Summer Brennan, author of High Heel
“How to be Loved is searing, compassionate, and unexpectedly funny in its exploration of how suffering can beat us down to the point that we are forced to accept grace, whether we like it or not.” —The Rumpus
“Grab a box of tissues for this one and have your best friend on speed dial. You’ll definitely want to call them after you turn the last page.” — Bookpage
“Dazzling.” — Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review
“An empowering tale of triumph and courage in the face of uncertainty.” — Yoga Journal
Selected Articles
“Roy McMakin’s Overpowering Simplicity”, Untapped, 2023
“What Ramps?!” New York Review of Architecture, 2023
“Slot House,” Wallpaper*, 2023
Meet Me By The Fountain Review, Architect’s Newspaper, 2022
Margaritaville Times Square, Architect’s Newspaper, 2021
“Love and Death in Hudson Yards,” Architect, 2021
“The Pandemic Has Remade Friendship,” The Atlantic, 2020
“The Untold Story of Aline Louchheim Saarinen,” Architect, 2019
“Hudson Yards Broke My Heart,” Architect, 2019
“Why Won’t Architects Talk About Succession?” Architect, 2019
How I Learned to Look Believable, The New York Times, 2018
Vital Signs, Guernica, 2016
LMAO, in Peggy Deamer, ed. Asymmetric Labors: The Architectural Economy in Theory and Practice, 2016