Bill Bondy began Zen practice in 1976 as a resident of the San Diego Zen Center, where he participated in two sesshins with Kyozan Joshu Sasaki. After attending architecture school at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he moved to San Francisco and resumed practice at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1981. His Zen practice has continued to the present day.
In 2015, his architecture studio was selected to lead the comprehensive renovation of SFZC’s City Center, balancing the modernization of a historic building with preservation of its legacy. The project helped ensure that City Center continues to serve as a place of mindfulness and compassion for future generations. Following the reopening in 2024, he was invited to join the Board of Directors.
Bill has practiced architecture since 1981 and has led Studio Bondy Architecture since 2001. The firm focuses on nonprofit institutional work, religious spaces, and pre-K–12 educational design. He is a graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the Georgia Institute of Technology and has served on the boards of the Headlands Center for the Arts and the Architectural Foundation of San Francisco.