J. Max Bond, Jr.

Who was J. Max Bond, Jr.?

J. Max Bond, Jr. was one of a small number of prominent African-American architects.

He developed an interest in architecture based on experiences ranging from viewing a staircase at a dormitory at the Tuskegee Institute to views of North African construction styles on a visit to Tunisia. Bond was educated at Harvard University, where he was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1955 and earned a master's degree three years later. He ignored advice from a Harvard faculty member to give up the professional pursuit of architecture due to his race, overcoming barriers in what was at the time a white profession.

He started his professional career in France with André Wogenscky. He moved back to New York City, working at the firms of Gruzen & Partners and at Pedersen & Tilney. He moved to Ghana in the mid-1960, where he designed several government buildings, including the Bolgatanga Regional Library in an area near the border with Burkina Faso, which consisted of four buildings shaded by a common roof that was designed to provide natural ventilation and obviate the need for air conditioning.

Back in the United States, he served as head of the Architects Renewal Committee of Harlem. In 1970, together with Donald P. Ryder, he founded the architectural firm of Bond Ryder & Associates which was responsible for the design of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, as well as Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.