As Harvard Arboretum Opposed Monastery Redevelopment, It Kept Close Contact With Top Boston Officials

Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum director maintained regular communication with Boston’s chief of planning about a contested Jamaica Plain housing development, according to emails obtained by The Crimson, even as the nuns who own the property went nearly three years without a meeting with senior city officials.

The emails show that Arboretum Director William “Ned” Friedman corresponded with Boston Chief of Planning Kairos Shen about the Poor Clare Nuns of Boston’s proposal to redevelop their monastery at 920 Centre Street into a 123-unit residential property. In one exchange, Shen advised Friedman not to respond to a Boston Globe reporter’s inquiry about the project.

“Something is up with 920 Centre Street and I have no idea what it is. What do you advise?” Friedman wrote to Shen last month after the Globe contacted him for an interview.

“I don’t think you need to respond to her call and certainly not before we speak,” Shen responded.

The sisters wrote to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07 in January requesting a meeting to “move the project forward quickly,” saying they had not met with Wu or Shen as the project stalled. They had their first meeting with Shen last Wednesday — nearly three months after the letter.

In August 2025, Friedman wrote to Shen to invite him to the Arboretum’s annual fundraising dinner. Tickets cost $2,500, of which $350 covered food and entertainment, according to the Arboretum’s website. Shen did not respond to the invitation, according to the emails.

The Arboretum, which directly abuts the monastery, has opposed the development citing potential effects on its 16,000-tree collection. In a public letter, Friedman argued the building would cause some trees to lose one to three hours of sunlight and would compromise the Arboretum’s mandate to protect the collection as a public good and research resource.

“We have an ethical and scientific responsibility to provide each living specimen, to the best of our capacity and ability, an environment to thrive,” Friedman wrote.

Over the last three years, Friedman has pushed developers to conduct multiple studies assessing the project’s potential impact on trees and roots. The developers agreed to lower the building by one story, and subsequent studies found the construction would not disproportionately affect the trees.

“We firmly believe that the 920 Centre Street redevelopment will not adversely affect the health of the Arboretum’s trees, a position supported by scientific and biological evidence,” the developer wrote.

A Harvard spokesperson did not comment on the communications between Friedman and Shen but highlighted the Arboretum’s long partnership with the city.

“In partnership with the City of Boston, the Arnold Arboretum serves as the long-term steward of a living museum that is both a publicly accessible park, open 365 days a year to the local community and visitors from around the world, and a leading research institution,” the spokesperson wrote.

Shen and the Boston Planning and Development Agency did not respond to requests for comment. The Poor Clare nuns could not be reached for comment during Holy Week.

Seamus Holland, a developer with Sixteen Penny Co. — which has been contracted for the redevelopment — wrote in a statement that the company was “grateful” to Shen for meeting with the sisters and believes he is “working to balance the interests of all stakeholders.”

“From our perspective, it is important that everyone — including the Poor Clares — have a fair opportunity to be heard as the process moves forward,” Holland wrote.

The emails were first obtained by Jamaica Plain resident Ben Crowther through a public records request. Crowther said he filed the request out of concern that Harvard was receiving outsized influence because of its relationship with the city.

“I think the idea there was that as a resident in the city of Boston, I had a sense that the public process was being undermined by a special interest,” Crowther said.

“I’m someone who lives about a little over a mile from the project, and this is Harvard University pulling the strings in our neighborhood,” he added.

— Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.