In addition to his many accomplishments, J. Max Bond, Jr. will be long remembered for his role in developing plans for the National 9/11 Museum in New York City.
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.
