Article

Horace Llewellyn Seymour

Published Online March 24, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Horace Llewellyn Seymour, urban planner (b at Burford, Ont 1882; d at Ottawa 21 Apr 1940). One of the founders of modern Canadian URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING, Seymour was a leading exponent of the scientific approach to planning and of zoning as the best means of achieving efficient cities.

Seymour, Horace Llewellyn

Horace Llewellyn Seymour, urban planner (b at Burford, Ont 1882; d at Ottawa 21 Apr 1940). One of the founders of modern Canadian URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING, Seymour was a leading exponent of the scientific approach to planning and of zoning as the best means of achieving efficient cities. Seymour worked as a land surveyor and municipal engineer before being seconded to the town-planning section of the COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION in 1915, where he served as Thomas ADAMS's lieutenant for eastern Canada. This was Seymour's formative period as an urban planner, and Adams's ideas influenced him throughout his career. His wide experience included the reconstruction of the area devastated by the HALIFAX EXPLOSION and 2 benchmarks of Canadian planning: the comprehensive plan and zoning scheme for KITCHENER-WATERLOO (1922-24) and the first plan for VANCOUVER (1926-29). Seymour was director of town and rural planning for Alberta (1929-32), and his planning system for Alberta set a model that other provinces eventually followed. He also served as a consultant to the governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and to many municipal governments in Ontario and New Brunswick.