Description:
The first biography of a preeminent postwar architect who championed the cause of freedom through architecture and transformed Black history and modernism
J. Max Bond Jr. (1935-2009) was a civil rights activist, educator, and architect who shaped such iconic structures as the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan. Driven by the concerns of the civil rights movement, he insisted on a practice centered on deep social engagement during years when his profession became preoccupied with celebrity and spectacle. Harvard educated and son of an eminent African American family, Bond designed housing, cultural institutions, community centers, and campuses amid an era of sweeping changes in architecture, urbanism, and American culture. He expressed an architectural vision that was democratic and inclusive, international in orientation, and celebratory of cities and their diverse residents. Yet his work has often been overlooked. Award-winning historian Brian Goldstein renders it visible. Beautifully illustrated, Max Bond is the definitive biography of one of the most important architects of our time, whose aspiration toward an architecture by and for the people was as urgent in his day as it remains in our own.Review Quotes: "A deeply researched and timely examination. . . . Max Bond is destined to become the definitive account of an architect whose quiet influence has long exceeded his recognition. The book avoids reducing Bond's story to one of struggle alone. Instead, it emphasizes his creativity, leadership, and determination to expand the possibilities of the profession. More than a biography, it is a work of historical recovery that restores a crucial figure to his rightful place in American architectural history. It offers valuable insights for architects, historians, urban planners, and anyone interested in the relationship between design and democracy."---Mark Gardner, Architectural Record