Max Bond, Jr. (1935-2009)
When J. Max Bond, Jr. was a student at Harvard, racists burned a cross outside his dormitory. Concerned, a white professor at the University advised Bond to abandon his dream of becoming an architect.
Years later, in an interview for the Washington Post, Bond recalled his professor saying, “There have never been any famous, prominent black architects… You’d be wise to choose another profession.” Fortunately, Bond had spent a summer working for African-American architect Paul Williams, and he knew that he could overcome racial stereotypes.
After graduating from Harvard, Bond designed many office buildings, libraries, and university research facilities in the United States. He worked on buildings designed by the Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier, and also designed some buildings in Ghana and Zimbabwe. He became a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and an inspiration to young minorities in his architecture classes at Columbia and City University.
Prominent Projects:
- Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama
- Martin Luther King Jr. crypt and memorial in Atlanta, Georgia
- A controversial modernist expansion of the Harvard Club in midtown Manhattan
- The Bolgatanga Regional Library in Ghana, which provided a unique roof design that provided natural ventilation
- With his firm, Davis Brody Bond Aedas, helped flesh out plans for the September 11 Memorial Museum
