David L. Davidson
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David L. Davidson was the first Town Planning Commissioner of
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
from 1929 until his death in 1952. He was tasked with implementing the Town Planning and Development Act of 1928 and served as Chairman of the Town Planning Board. He is remembered as a pragmatic reformer whose forceful and divisive personality hindered his effectiveness as an administrator.Foley, Neil & Freestone, Robert,
David L. Davidson: early town planning reformer and administrator
13th Australasian Urban History Planning History Conference, 31 January - 3 February 2016, Gold Coast, Australia His career commenced in New South Wales as an engineer-surveyor associated with the Town Planning Association. After several years of high-profile advocacy for planning reform in his home state, he was appointed by the Western Australian government to implement the state's new town planning laws. Davidson came into conflict with local planning reformers, particularly
William Bold William Ernest Bold C.B.E. (6 May 187325 November 1953) was a long-serving municipal clerk of Perth, Western Australia. He is generally acknowledged to be the founding father of urban planning in Western Australia. See also *Municipal sociali ...
,
City of Perth A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
Town Clerk and
Harold Boas Harold Boas OBE (27 September 1883 – 17 September 1980) was a town planner and architect in Western Australia. Boas designed many public buildings in and around Perth and was an influential Jewish community leader. He served as an elected m ...
, chairman of the
Metropolitan Town Planning Commission The Metropolitan Town Planning Commission was created in 1922 by the Victorian state government to provide advice for the planning and development of the city of Melbourne, Australia. It produced the first comprehensive urban development strategy f ...
- potentially exacerbated by Davidson's alignment with the values of the "city functional" philosophy, in contrast to the
city beautiful movement The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...
. Tensions arising from Davidson's implementation of new subdivision and planning laws let to him being charged with assault on one occasion, and subjected to media criticism that led to him launching two defamation actions against the Daily News.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, David L. Year of birth missing Year of death missing Australian urban planners Public servants of Western Australia