J. Max Bond, Jr.

J. Max Bond, Jr. (born July 17, 1935, Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.—died February 18, 2009, Manhattan, New York) was an American architect and educator who is considered one of the nation’s foremost Black architects. His career was characterized not only by excellence in building but also by his dedication to recognizing and addressing social inequities in his field.

Early life and education

Bond was born to Ruth Clement Bond and J. Max Bond, Sr., educators who worked in the United States and in Africa. Bond, Jr., and his siblings, Jane and George, accompanied their parents on their travels, where Bond, Jr., was exposed to incredible feats of architecture at an early age. He was fascinated by a staircase at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama, where his father was an administrator, and by North African architectural style in Tunisia. In 1951, at the age of 15, Bond enrolled at Harvard University. At the time, African Americans made up only 1 percent of the student body. After graduating in 1955, he entered Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, where faculty discouraged him from studying architecture because of his race. Nevertheless, Bond graduated with a master’s degree in 1958 and began his pursuit of a career in architecture.

Architecture, teaching, and personal life

Bond’s early career took him around the world. He worked in Los Angeles with “architect to the stars” Paul Revere Williams; in France with architect André Wogenscky, who had worked with Le Corbusier for two decades; in New York City; and in Ghana, where Bond designed the Bolgatanga Regional Library. In 1961 Bond returned briefly to the United States and married the writer Jean Carey. The couple later had two children, Ruth and Carey. Bond lived with his family for several years in Ghana, where he continued working as an architect. At the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, Bond began teaching for the first time.

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In 1967 the family relocated to New York City, where Bond supervised the Architects Renewal Committee of Harlem. He then founded the firm Bond Ryder & Associates with fellow architect Donald P. Ryder. The pair formed what The New York Times called “one of the nation’s most prominent partnerships of Black architects.” Together they designed the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, in Atlanta; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in Harlem, New York; and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, in Alabama. After Ryder’s retirement in 1990, Bond Ryder & Associates joined the larger Davis, Brody & Associates, where Bond led the redevelopment of the Audubon Ballroom, New York, the site of Malcolm X’s assassination. The New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp wrote that Bond’s design “gives new meaning to the term civil engineering: it seeks to balance by formal means the competing stakes in the land the building will occupy.” In 1987 Bond was awarded the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, one of the highest honors presented by the American Institute of Architects.

Other work

As noteworthy as his architectural accomplishments is Bond’s attention to social inclusivity in his work. He taught future architects at Columbia University and served as dean of the School of Architecture and Environmental Studies at the City College of New York (1985–92). He prioritized public access, especially in regard to plans for the new World Trade Center site after the September 11 attacks. The initial team involved was majority white, and Bond criticized the desire for a quick completion of new towers at the expense of the surrounding community. “It’s always been difficult for young [Black people], for young [Hispanic people], for anyone who looks aberrant to get access to the upper realms of Wall Street towers,” he told The New York Times in 2003. He continued in what was perhaps the thesis of his career: “Architecture inevitably involves all the larger issues of society.”