After completing his secondary education in Varaždin and Zagreb, his uncle's support enabled him to study at the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna.

The year following his graduation, he travelled to Italy, then worked in the studios of Baron Karl von Hasenauer, making detailed architectural drawings of historical buildings.

He was there for six years and worked on his most familiar project; completing the Vijećnica (City Hall), left unfinished by the death of Alexander Wittek.

Iveković remained active in Vienna, becoming a corresponding member of the "Central Commission for the Study and Maintenance of Historical and Artistic Monuments" in 1899 and, later, the Austrian Archaeological Institute.

The city of Zadar came under Italian rule at the end World War I, but Iveković held on to his position until 1920 when he moved to Zagreb and became a professor of architecture at the Technical High School.