Kairos Shen, MArch ‘91, fell in love with Boston during graduate school. “This is a unique city,” says Shen, who has lived here for nearly 20 years. “It is physically very beautiful and is distinctive in terms of being both urban and livable.” Now he’s working to help keep it that way.
As the director of planning for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston’s agency for economic development and planning, Shen has been intimately involved with several high-profile projects, including the planning and permitting of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, a job that included developing legislation for construction and financing.
Shen has also been involved with planning the rehabilitation of Fenway Park and helped pave the way for the Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA) building on the South Boston waterfront. The ICA, which opened in December 2006, was the first new Boston art museum built in the past 100 years. The glass-clad, cantilevered structure is revolutionary for a city renowned for traditional style. Shen worked with the ICA and its architect throughout the design review process to shape the building’s final form and led the city’s efforts to modify restrictive state waterfront regulations to accommodate this unique structure. According to the Boston Globe, Shen’s contribution to the project was instrumental in calming “concerns in City Hall that the project was too adventurous architecturally for the city.”
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