J. Max Bond Jr. Lecture | A Dialogue on Legacy in Practice

Join the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (nycoba|NOMA), the J. Max Bond Center of City University of New York, and the AIANY Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the annual J. Max Bond Jr. Lecture. Established in 2010, this design talk honors the memory of J. Max Bond, Jr., FAIA, NOMA, an architect, partner at Davis Brody Bond, advocate, teacher, and trailblazer of his time. The lecture addresses issues that were important to Bond: equity, inclusive design, communities, and global cultures, in particular Ghana and Africa at large.

This year’s lecture centers on the legacy and practice of Black Architects, asking how archiving can serve not only as a tool of preservation, but also as a catalyst for shaping the future. Bringing together panelists whose work is deeply informed by archival practice, the discussion will highlight diverse perspectives on how archives can ground, position, and amplify the contributions of Black Architects. Together, we will consider how these archival lenses open pathways for confronting today’s multifaceted challenges and envisioning what comes next.

Archival processes hold the power to revisit the past in ways that inform, educate, and inspire the reimagining of contemporary spatial practice. The J. Max Bond Jr. Lecture itself serves as a living archive—indexing the voices, practices, and trajectories of today’s practitioners. This year’s program culminates in a conversation on the potentials of “living archives,” from the Paul R. Williams Archive Initiative (led by Milton Curry) to the Coles House Project (co-led by Scott Ruff and Albert Chao), which preserves Robert Traynham Coles’ House and Studio while reimagining it as a community space.

Speakers:
Albert Chao, Co-Director of Coles House Project, Coles House Project 
Scott Ruff, Co-Director of Coles House Project, Coles House Project 
Milton Curry, Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Engagement, Cornell University and Critical Productive Journal 

Moderator:
Catherine Chattergoon, Project Team Member, Adjaye Associates

About the Speakers:
Albert Chao is an artist, architect, organizer, educator, and tinkerer based in Buffalo, NY. In his creative practice, Albert interrogates and subverts norms embedded in architecture and design processes. He works at the intersection of community building, narrative storytelling, and collective futuring. He is a core organizer with Dark Matter U and teaches at the University at Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning. He was a 2023 Journal of Architectural Education Fellow. He is a licensed architect in the state of New York, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a dual Masters of Architecture and Fine Arts from the University at Buffalo.

Scott Ruff is also an adjunct associate professor of architecture at Pratt Institute. He has previously held appointments at Cornell University School of Architecture as the Baird Visiting Professor, Yale School of Architecture as the Louis I. Kahn Visiting distinguished professor, New York Institute of Technology, Tulane University, Syracuse University, Hampton University and SUNY Buffalo. He is the principal of RuffWorks Studio, a research and design studio specializing in culturally informed projects and community engagement, and in this capacity works with the development group, NST Collaborative. His work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the National Trust, the Maryland Historical Trust, the Graham Foundation, the New York State Council of the Arts and the Harlem School of the Arts. Ruff has received awards for diversity inclusion and community outreach from the AIA and ACSA. His design work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at the Venice Biennale. Scott Ruff has lectured nationally and internationally on issues of cultural heritage in the built environment and community design. Ruff is the co-editor of In Search of African American Space: Redressing Racism, Lars Muller Publishers. He is co-author of Within or Without “Gullah Geechee Institute”, Yale School of Architecture publications. He has articles published in several journals and proceedings. Ruff received his first professional Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and a Master of Architecture II from Cornell University.

Milton S. F. Curry is Professor of Architecture and Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Engagement at the Cornell College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP); and former Dean at the University of Southern California School of Architecture from 2017-2022. Curry has published and lectured widely. He is founding editor of CriticalProductive Journal, an interdisciplinary academic journal distributed by the MIT Press. Curry serves on the Museum of Modern Art Board of Trustees Architecture and Design Acquisitions Committee. Curry was instrumental in the acquisition of the Paul R. Williams Archives, as Dean at USC Architecture, and will oversee a collaborative set of exhibitions at USC, Getty Research Institute and LACMA in 2026.

Catherine Chattergoon is an artist and architectural designer based in Brooklyn, New York who is passionate about working towards social and spatial equity to move us towards possible worlds and futures. With architecture and design as a way of practicing compassion, her work is rooted at the intersection of architecture, photography, environ/meants, and poetics—an entanglement that creates space for the reimagining and rebuilding of the systems and structures that exist today through care and collective action. Chattergoon is an alumna of the Pratt Institute B. Arch Program and is currently working at Adjaye Associates in New York. She formerly served on the national boards of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), advocating for just change and the empowerment of underrepresented voices in the field of architecture and the built environment.