People / Government & civic life
Planning commissioner and design director
An appointed land-use decision maker whose work connects architecture, preservation and civic institutions.
Shane Hood serves on Tulsa’s city planning and preservation commissions while working in private design practice. His record includes adaptive-reuse projects, architectural advocacy, a nonprofit headquarters and a documented campaign role. His public authority operates through commission decisions and established review procedures.
Align Design Build’s own team page identifies Hood as principal and design director. Public preservation staff materials identify him with Align Design Group in January 2026; that older website now redirects to the current firm site. These sources establish professional affiliation, without establishing his ownership share or earnings. His professional profile lists study at Drury University from 1996 to 2002; those dates are self-reported. Earlier independent coverage identified him as a principal at ElevenTH, whose Tulsa office reused a former Route 66 gas station. The reported project provides an early example of his interest in working with existing buildings.
His professional profile lists Drury University study during this period; self-reported.
Independent reporting identifies Hood as an ElevenTH principal in a former gas-station office.
City roster dates his earlier commission appointment to February 1.
Named in the chair field of Gilbert’s 2024 organization statement.
Defends a denial; subsequent minutes record a revised approach and approval of a related special exception.
Align team role and Bike Club project documented; listed as second vice chair of the new city commission from September.
People, institutions and the relationships between them
Each step below represents a documented relationship. Dates and roles belong to the individual links; a path can span different periods.
The current city commission seat is distinct from former metropolitan service.
Design service does not imply governance or financial control.
The 2024 campaign filing establishes a historical officer role.
7 documented relationships · Historical and current roles remain distinct.
Second vice chair and appointed commissioner
September 2, 2026–current; listed expiration September 2, 2029
Term expiration is not an actual service end. Planning Office resolves conflicting City ABC end-date field.
Planning representative; former chair
Listed current; chaired in March2025
Current roster names Peter Grant chair; Hood’s historical chair title is not projected forward.
Former city-appointed commissioner
February 1, 2023–September 2, 2026
City dissolution note distinguishes former metropolitan commission from successor city commission.
Principal and design director
Documented January2026 and current website
Firm branding changed from Align Design Group to Align Design Build; no ownership percentage or legal succession inferred.
Listed advisory council member
Current accessible page headed 2025 Leadership
Dated as the published 2025 roster; 2026 renewal not independently established. Distinct from historical trustee service.
Designed nonprofit headquarters
Reported May18,2026
Architectural service only; not a board, ownership or funding-control relationship.
Named in chair field of Gilbert’s 2024 campaign organization filing
March11,2024 filing snapshot
Two names share chair field. Does not establish current 2026 role, personal donation, compensation, or influence over appointment.
Interpretation
The planning commission’s adopted ethics rules require members with a conflict to disclose it publicly, refrain from deliberation and abstain from voting. They address potential private benefit, organizational interests and economic interests; they also require disclosure of private communications from interested parties before or at public discussion. Those rules are particularly relevant to members who practice in the development and design fields. Hood’s professional and campaign affiliations identify relationships worth tracking, but do not by themselves establish a conflict in any particular case.
The City’s roster records Hood’s earlier appointment to the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission from February 1, 2023. It also states that the metropolitan body was to dissolve after its September 2, 2026 meeting. His present city commission seat therefore belongs to a different body, rather than an uninterrupted institutional label. Separately, the Tulsa Preservation Commission lists him in its planning-representative seat. That creates a formal connection between broader land-use planning and the review of alterations within historic districts. The preservation roster names Peter Grant as chair; Hood’s chairmanship documented in 2025 should be read historically.
KJRH’s reporting on the conversion of the former Claud’s Hamburgers building described Hood’s effort to retain its roadside-diner character while adapting it for Inheritance Kitchen and Juicery. The report identified his long trustee association with the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture. The foundation’s accessible leadership page, headed 2025 Leadership, now places him in its Advisory Council, separate from its trustees. The distinction matters: an advisory listing establishes an affiliation, not a governing vote. Its cultural work and his public preservation seat are separate institutional roles, even where they concern the same built environment.
In May 2026, The Pickup reported that Hood and Align designed Bike Club’s new headquarters beside Bales Park in west Tulsa. The article describes spaces organized around moving, maintaining and teaching with bicycles, and a common area opening toward surrounding trails. It also places the project in the nonprofit’s larger setting: Bike Club’s after-school programs operated at 37 Tulsa Public Schools locations that year. This is a documented professional connection between design practice and a youth-serving organization. It does not establish that Hood directed the nonprofit, financed the building or controlled its school relationships.
At the March 11, 2025 Tulsa Board of Adjustment hearing on BOA-23857, Hood spoke as preservation commission chair in defense of denying a parking-pad permit in Swan Lake. He argued that the completed work failed the adopted design guidelines. The applicant’s side emphasized visibility and traffic safety. A motion to reverse the denial failed: two members supported reversal, one opposed it and one abstained. The remaining driveway requests were continued. The later record changes the picture: on May 13 the applicant reported that the preservation commission had allowed the pad with landscaping in front. The Board of Adjustment then approved the special exception unanimously among the three members present; the variance request was withdrawn. These minutes document a disputed administrative decision followed by a revised approach, rather than a permanent prohibition or a finding of personal misconduct.
A City-held organization statement filed March 11, 2024 for Friends for Karen Gilbert 2024 lists Hood and Reynolds Wallis together in the chair field. The original document identifies Karen Gilbert despite a misleading file name. This supports a dated campaign-officer connection to the District 5 councilor. It does not establish a donation amount, paid campaign employment or a continuing role in the 2026 campaign. The filing is a historical snapshot, not a current campaign roster.
Check the record
Research checked 2026-11-02. Roles and financial figures retain their source dates. Sections appear only when supported material is available; an omitted section is not a finding that no such relationship exists.
primary · Checked 2026-11-02
Shane Hood: second vice chair; September 2, 2026 appointment and September 2, 2029 expiration.
primary · Checked 2026-11-02
Planning Commission, TMAPC dissolution note and preservation seat. Planning seat expiration conflicts with Planning Office; do not adopt impossible date.
primary · Source date 2026-08-17 · Checked 2026-11-02
Sections 1.2–1.6, 5.2–5.3; pages 1–2 and 7–8.
primary · Checked 2026-11-02
After the Hearing: Council consideration and appeals.
primary · Checked 2026-11-02
Current roster names Hood in planning seat; Peter Grant chair. Legacy TMAPC label retained on page.
primary · Checked 2026-11-02
The Studio: Shane Hood, Principal / Design Director; explicitly named portrait. Former aligndesigngroup.com redirects here.
self-description · Checked 2026-11-02
Self-reported Drury University 1996–2002; not a registrar record.
independent reporting · Checked 2026-11-02
Bridgette Meinhold identifies Hood as ElevenTH principal; reuse of former PEMCO station.
independent reporting · Checked 2026-11-02
Erin Christy; Hood interview, preservation approach, W Design renderings. Opening timing was a hope, not completion evidence.
primary · Checked 2026-11-02
Page headed 2025 Leadership; separate Advisory Council lists Shane Hood, Align Design. Retrieval does not establish a newly dated 2026 term.
independent reporting · Source date 2026-05-18 · Checked 2026-11-02
Cassidy McCants, May 18, 2026: Hood/Align design, nonprofit founders, program and building.
primary · Source date 2025-03-11 · Checked 2026-11-02
Meeting1356, pp5–7, BOA-23857: Hood position; failed reversal and continued requests.
primary · Source date 2025-05-13 · Checked 2026-11-02
Meeting1360 p4, BOA-23857: applicant reports landscaping condition, variance withdrawn, special exception approved.
primary · Source date 2024-03-11 · Checked 2026-11-02
Original single page visually checked: filed March11,2024 12:35; section3 chair field Shane Hood/Reynolds Wallis. Filename incorrectly says Karen Keith; document identifies Karen Gilbert. Identity corroborated against professional contact in public institutional record; no private contact republished.
primary · Source date 2026-02-19 · Checked 2026-11-02
January29,2026 submitted professional correspondence identifies Shane D. Hood, Principal/Director of Design, Align Design Group and both commissions; identity corroboration only.
