Robert Kuehn Jr., 63; helped develop mixed-income housing

At Robert H. Kuehn Jr.'s 60th birthday party in 2002, a photograph of him as a tall, slender young man was labeled ``New Construction." Alongside it at the celebration in Harvard Square, a photo of a gray-bearded man wearing slightly rumpled clothing and the same smile was labeled ``Historic Rehab."

The juxtaposition, colleagues said, aptly captured Mr. Kuehn, an award-winning developer, and the years he spent transforming historic buildings into mixed-income housing.

A longtime champion of affordable housing and mixed-use developments, Mr. Kuehn died of a heart attack Thursday at his Keen Development Corp. offices in Cambridge. He was 63.

``He was a giant in the field of affordable housing and community development," said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizens' Housing and Planning Association, a Boston-based nonprofit advocacy group. ``He pioneered high quality, mixed-income housing in Massachusetts and made it a national model for the rest of the country."

Boston is dotted with the projects that Mr. Kuehn and his company developed for mixed-income housing, such as West End Place, Anderson Park, and Anderson Place on Beacon Hill, 300 Summer St. in South Boston, and the Baker Chocolate Factory in Dorchester.

Though many municipalities tend to have negative associations with developers, Gornstein and others said, Mr. Kuehn was a favorite among many citizens groups, having established himself as a community-oriented developer who had an eye for making efficient use of spaces that had a rich history.

Mr. Kuehn was drawn to complicated projects that required careful planning and would often take on projects others thought to be impossible, such as the old Chelsea Post Office, which became the Chelsea campus of Bunker Hill Community College, and Building No. 114 in the Charlestown Navy Yard, which he rehabilitated after much of it was destroyed in a fire.

Much of his ability to get these projects up and running was because of his diplomatic, easy-going style, housing advocates said, which was appealing to those with whom he had to work, including politicians.

Mr. Kuehn also liked to work on projects that helped redevelop and preserve artist housing, such as Fenway Studios and Midway Studios.

Over the years, he was on dozens of boards and committees, mostly revolving around affordable housing and historic preservation. He was a former president of Historic Massachusetts, a statewide nonprofit group dedicated to increasing awareness of historic properties in Massachusetts. Several of his projects won development awards, according to Mr. Kuehn's company.

When the state Community Preservation Act was signed into law in 2000, allowing each community to decide whether to add a surcharge of up to 3 percent on property taxes to pay for affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space, Mr. Kuehn eagerly responded to the queries of cities of towns that adopted it.

He was born in Minneapolis and moved east to attend Yale University, from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1964 and two master's degrees, one in urban studies and another in architecture in 1968. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London in 1969.

Mr. Kuehn lectured at a number of local colleges, including Tufts University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He launched Keen Development Corp. in 1976, initially using Kuehn, but found his name was often mispronounced. So he renamed his company Keen to capture the correct pronunciation.

Mr. Kuehn leaves his brother Tom of Albuquerque.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow in the courtyard of West End Place, one of the many buildings he helped to build.