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Who

The most prominent African-American architect in the city, Max Bond was a founder of the corporate architecture firm Davis Brody Bond. Bond died on February 18, 2009.

Backstory

When Bond was an architecture student at Harvard, a friendly professor took him aside and politely suggested he pursue another line of work: A black man didn't have a shot in the white world of architecture, he explained. (Apparently, the professor was unaware that Harvard's Widener library had been designed by a black architect.) Bond wisely ignored the professor's advice and after graduation moved to Paris, where he was hired by Le Corbusier's right hand, Andre Wogenscky, and worked on several buildings that Le Corbusier himself had designed. After a stint in Africa—he spent several years in Ghana designing buildings at the behest of then-President Kwame Nkrumah—Bond returned home and founded his own firm, Ryder Bond and Associates. (After a merger with another firm in 1990, it was renamed Davis Brody Bond.) Since then, Bond has occupied himself with a slew of commercial projects. He's also been active teaching the profession to the next generation: He's a former dean of CUNY's school of architecture.

Of note

Bond has been involved in a number of notable projects over the years, including the Martin Luther King Jr. crypt and memorial in Atlanta, the Apollo Performance Arts Center on 125th Street, and a renovation of the Studio Museum in Harlem. One more controversial project: In 2001, Bond designed an appendage to the Harvard Club on West 44th Street and some protested that the annex's modern design clashed with the club's old-school, neo-Georgian look. (Opponents went to court to halt construction, but Bond prevailed in the end.) These days, Bond is working on "Reflecting Absence," the Sept. 11th memorial under construction at the World Trade Center. While Michael Arad is the lead architect on the project, it's Bond's firm that will complete Arad's design. It's terrain that Bond knows well: His firm did designs for the old World Trade Center's plazas and concourses.

Family ties

Bond's trailblazing ways run in the family. His late father, Max Bond Sr., earned his doctorate in sociology and economics from USC in 1934, a rare feat for an African-American during the early part of the 20th century, and he went on to serve as president of the University of Liberia in Africa. One of Max's cousins is Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP.

Personal

Bond's wife, Jean Carey Bond, is a publicist for the Black Radical Congress. They live in Harlem.