By The Editors

J. Max Bond Jr., a groundbreaking architect renowned in New York City and throughout the country, passed away Wednesday, February 18, in Manhattan.

J. Max Bond Jr. (Photo by Fred Conrad, NY Times)

Bond, who was renowned for his love of architecture, was counseled by a faculty member at Harvard University to forget about becoming an architect because he was black. Fortunately for New York and American architecture, Bond ignored that advice and went on to create such acclaimed structures as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s crypt and memorial at The King Center in Atlanta; the Bolgatanga Regional Library in Ghana; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama; and the plazas and concourses of the old World Trade Center as well as input into plans for the new World Trade Center site.

A partner in Davis Brody Bond, he was a leader in the museum portion of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in the World Trade Center. He was also involved in the redevelopment of the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated;.

Bond was also an educator at Columbia University and City College, and, unlike the naysayer at Harvard who tried to dissuade him from his dream, he served as inspiration and example to a many young people interested in architectural design.

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