Mayor Michelle Wu has appointed Kairos Shen as the city of Boston’s new chief of planning.
Shen will lead the city’s planning department, which Wu established in July to restore planning as a core function of city government. Shen succeeds Arthur Jemison, who left the position in August a little more than two years after taking the Helm as Boston’s planning chief.
Wu announced the return of planning as a core function of city government in April, marking the first time in 70 years that the city has had a planning department.
The move replaced several functions of the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), transitioning house planning, zoning, development review, urban design and real estate staff to the new department.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Kairos into leadership of Boston’s Planning Department and all the critical functions shaping the built environment for affordability, equity and resilience,” said Wu.
“As a longtime friend and advisor, Kairos brings an unparalleled knowledge and expertise of this work and our communities. His decades of public, private and institutional experience in Boston, and the relationships he has built across the city, will help the new planning department advance our ambitious work to grow Boston and make our city a place everyone can call home.”
Shen will transition into the role in early October officially taking over the position on Oct. 15. He will also maintain an affiliation with MIT where he teaches “City Making” at the MIT Center for Real Estate.
From 2020 to 2024 he was the executive director of the MIT Center for Real Estate. Prior to that, Shein worked at city hall in several planning and design roles for 20 years under former Mayors Thomas Menino and Martin Walsh, serving as both the director of planning at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston’s Economic Development and Planning Agency. He also served as Boston’s chief city planner for 13 years where he was involved in shaping the city’s planning initiatives and development projects from 1993 to 2015, a time when the city saw significant investment and growth. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Shen has a master of architecture degree from MIT.
Shen said he’s excited to return to city hall with a fresh perspective after a decade of “teaching, research and mentoring the next generation of urban planners and designers.”
“Boston is a different city than it was 10 years ago, and I’m inspired by the incredible strides Mayor Wu has taken in just two and a half years,” he said. “I’m looking forward to advancing the significant work that has already begun including zoning reform and making development review more predictable and transparent.”