Biography
Jerold S. Kayden
Jerold S. Kayden is the Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design and Founding Director of the Master in Real Estate program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He previously served as co-chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design and director of the Urban Planning Program.
His teaching, scholarship, and practice focus on land use and environmental law, public-private real estate development, public space, climate change, design competitions, and cultural space. His books include Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience; Urban Disaster Resilience: New Dimensions from International Practice in the Built Environment; Landmark Justice: The Influence of William J. Brennan on America’s Communities; and Zoning and the American Dream: Promises Still To Keep.
As urban planner and lawyer, Professor Kayden has worked with governments, non-governmental organizations, and real estate developers and owners worldwide. He has argued court cases, written amicus briefs for United States Supreme Court cases, and served as expert witness.
He has drafted laws on inclusionary zoning, public space, and land reform. His international government consulting practice has been supported by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the United States Agency for International Development, and the United Nations Development Programme, taking him to Armenia, China, Nepal, Russia, and Ukraine.
Since 1991, Professor Kayden has served as principal constitutional counsel to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C. He founded and leads Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space, a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging public use of privately owned public space.
From 2009 to 2011, he was Principal Investigator for the Harvard-Netherlands Project on Climate Change, Water, Land Development, and Adaptation, a collaborative effort between Harvard, the Netherlands Government, and the Deltares Institute.
Among Professor Kayden’s honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, the American Bar Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Environmental Design Research Association, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. At the Design School, he has been recognized schoolwide as “Teacher of the Year.”
Professor Kayden earned his undergraduate, law, and city and regional planning degrees from Harvard and subsequently served as law clerk to Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court.
