Gordon Stephenson was born in 1908. He studied architecture at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 1930.
Early career
His early career included working with Patrick Abercrombie on the Greater London Plan. Along with Peter Shepheard, he created an influential design for Stevenage, the first post-war British new town, which incorporated a pedestrianised town centre. In 1953, he was commissioned by the state government of Western Australia to produce a plan for the metropolitan area of Perth and Fremantle. The resulting 1955 Plan for the Metropolitan Region was co-authored with Alistair Hepburn, and is commonly known as the "Stephenson-Hepburn Report". It included an atlas of maps which laid down a broad pattern of future land uses including highways and open space, and catered for significant additional population growth. The report formed the basis for the 1963 Metropolitan Region Scheme for Perth and Fremantle, a legal instrument for regulating land-use and development in the urban area It remained the overarching strategic plan for the development of Perth until it was succeeded by the Corridor Plan for Perth in 1970.
Later career
In 1953 he returned to the UK to take up the Chair of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool and, following his work in Perth, he was employed variously as a consultant planner and academic in New Zealand, Canada, and America. In Halifax, Canada, he is known for his 1957 plan to redevelop the entire downtown core as well as the forceful eviction of Africville, a historically black neighborhood. He subsequently returned to Perth and continued to play an important role in its development, amongst other things crafting plans for Joondalup and Midland regional centres, and for the campus of Murdoch University. In later life, he authored several books. He died on 30 March 1997, possibly of a stroke.
Personal life and collaboration with Flora Crockett
In 1938, Stephenson married New Jersey-born Flora Bartlett Crockett. She had been one of the first two women to graduate in City Planning from MIT, in 1937. The two collaborated on published work and research thereafter. Gerald Dix writes of Crockett: ‘She was an immense support and a sound professional collaborator upon whose judgement her relied in much of his work for 40 years. It was a great blow to him when she died in 1979.’ The Stephensons had three daughters: Gail, Sarah and Ann.
