February 5, 2025

AIA New Jersey’s Black History: Van B. Bruner, Jr., FAIA, Setting Precedents At AIA National

Bruner’s career focused on bringing low-cost design services to local neighborhoods. (AIA Archives)

In 2020, AIA New Jersey and West Jersey lost a most influential member who contributed significantly to the Black History of the American Institute of Architects and the National Organization of Minority Architects, Van B. Bruner, Jr., FAIA. 

Mr. Bruner was dedicated to serving and enriching the community around him. Born in 1931, in Washington D.C. and spending most of his youth in our nation’s capital, he first arrived in New Jersey in 1945 and went on to attend both Haddon Heights and Woodbury High Schools.

Ever since his adolescent years, he had been a leader in his community. Excelling at both the high and low hurdles, he earned a track scholarship in high school to the University of Michigan where he went on to break a 25-year-old university indoor track hurdle record. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in Commercial Art, he married his wife Lillian Almond and then decided to join the United States Air Force. Demonstrating the courage and bravery of a leader, he trained to fly the propeller-driven refueling planes and helped keep the American aircraft in the sky around the clock during the Cold War.

After leaving the USAF in 1957, Van attended Drexel Institute and began to study architecture. Upon graduation, he was blessed to work with some of the most well-known architects in Philadelphia such as Vincent Kling and Louis Goettelmann 2nd. In 1968, he relocated his family to Haddonfield, NJ, and started his own practice, The Bruner Firm, while serving as Department Chairman of the Building Construction Engineering Technology of the Spring Garden Institute of Philadelphia.

The principal of a small New Jersey architectural firm, Bruner devoted time to professional and public concerns. While AIA National Vice President from 1973 to 1975, he served on the AIA Task Force on National Growth Policy, helping to direct positive change for the organization’s future. He chaired the AIA Community Services Commission, bringing growing numbers of minority professionals into the organization’s structure and outreach activities.

He helped to create Community Design Centers throughout the United States, the Minority Disadvantage Scholarship, and recognition of Black Architects within the society. The 1975 AIA Whitney M. Young Award was bestowed upon Mr. Bruner, as a voice for broadening diversity in architecture and advocating for community participation in urban planning projects. The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award is given to an architect or architectural organization that embodies social responsibility and actively addresses a pressing social issue. His trailblazing leadership and Civil Rights actions made him noteworthy and during this time, he also received the designation of Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, (FAIA). 

Throughout its years, the Bruner Firm had been a leader in civic design and development completing such projects as the CCMUA Building, Gloucester County Superintendent Office Building, Third World Culture Center in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Burlington, New Jersey.

In 2011, AIA West Jersey presented the prestigious Louis Goettelmann Award to Mr. Van B. Bruner, Jr., FAIA, for his commitment and exemplary service to the profession and the West Jersey Section of AIA. The award was presented to him by William Fearon, AIA, Past President of AIA-WJ.

In the same year, during William Brown, III, FAIA, NOMAC, tenure as NJ-NOMA president, Brown presented Mr. Bruner with an award at the New Jersey Institute of Technology School of Architecture. It was a Certificate of Appreciation from NJ-NOMA for outstanding service and commitment to the profession of Architecture, presented during the Black History Month event that NJ-NOMA established. Mr. Bruner, a long-time family friend of Brown’s parents and mentor to Brown, was very grateful and happy to be acknowledged. It was a legacy moment for Brown to share the experience with Mr. and Mrs. Bruner. 

By Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, AIA NJ Advocacy Consultant | Posted in AIA Central New Jersey, Diversity, EquityInArchitecture | Tagged: #AIA, #AIAFellow, #AIANJ, #BlackArchitects, #BlackArchitectsMonth, #BlackHistoryMonth, #VanBBrunerFAIA, #WhitenyMYoungAward, #WilliamBrownIIIFAIANOMAC, #WilliamFearonAIA, NJNOMA | Comments (0)