Harold Spence-Sales

Harold Spence-Sales, urban planner (born 22 October 1907 in Lahore, India; died 12 March 2004 in Montréal, QC). Professor of architecture at McGill University 1947–70, he led the first Canadian university program in town planning and in the later 1940s and the 1950s frequently advised governments on policy measures for land use and planning legislation. His more notable works relate to the planning of new towns (e.g., Oromocto, New Brunswick, and Préville [now part of St-Lambert], Québec) and to master-plan schemes for Moncton, New Brunswick; Charlottetown, PEI; Sudbury, Ontario; Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; and other towns. His teaching and consulting work emphasized not only the aesthetics of urban planning but sensitivity to the environment, treating town planning as both an art form and a social mission. His writings include How to Subdivide (1949), A Guide to Urban Dispersal (1956) and Beautifying Towns (1967). Generations of Canadian planners have been influenced by his original thought and imaginative style of planning.