Noel Dant: The story of town-planned design approach

When the Second World War was over, Dant, now 32 and with two university degrees in his pocket, accepted a research fellowship to Yale University and completed a masters of architecture degree in city planning. He was then awarded a Wheelwright Fellowship to Harvard and completed another masters degree in regional planning. 

Although he qualified easily for his PhD at Harvard, Dant decided to take a break before launching his career in North America. He had worked at various part-time positions in London, Toronto and Springfield and had already begun work as Senior Planner with the City of Chicago.

He and his two Harvard colleagues, however, decided to take advantage of a cheap bus ticket that allowed the three young men unlimited travel and a “hop on, hop off” provision with indefinite stays. Before leaving on their great adventure, Noel had sent out a number of copies of his rather impressive resume to cities all over North America. His intent was to review any responses on his return to Chicago.

As fate would have it, on the very first day of his trip Dant met a young fellow bus traveler from Canada and fell in love. This was the girl with whom he was destined to spend the rest of his life. As it turned out, Edmonton was one of the cities which wanted to meet him, and in August 1949, he left for Alberta.

Dant was interviewed by a reporter from the Edmonton Bulletin on his impressions of Edmonton and his meeting with Mayor Harry Ainlay and the rest of city council. Apparently, the Chicago planner was very impressed with Edmonton’s “low skyline and general openness.” He told the reporter that he felt “a ratio of three to three and a half acres of parkland per 1,000 population was ideal and quite achievable in Edmonton.” Evidently, the city council must have liked what they heard and Noel Dant became Edmonton’s first city planner.

Dant hit the ground running. His contract with the city required him to submit for council approval all plans for land development. He was also required to attend all council meetings and chair a planning commission to coordinate all city services to each new subdivision. 

Post-war Edmonton was booming. The oil strike in 1947 at Leduc had made Edmonton the hub of the petroleum service industry and people were moving to the city at the rate of 12,000 per month. Community plans were being submitted to council every three months or less, and all permits for each new development had to be pre-approved by the planning commission.

Prior to Dant’s arrival in Edmonton, the city had been constructed on the familiar grid system. He introduced a “town planned” design approach, which featured curvilinear street patterns leading to school and community league sites and green spaces near the centre of the neighbourhood. Crescents and cul de sacs were used in place of the usual row housing and featured a mixture of single-family dwellings, townhouses and low-rise apartment blocks. Each of these integrated communities would be serviced by an arterial road and transit system that would connect them together but would not travel through the neighbourhoods. 

As Lawrence Herzog has described it, “Dant’s design kept through traffic away from the heart of the community, making the streets safer for pedestrians and reducing noise and pollution.” Herzog also points out that the new design was a more efficient use of land than the traditional grid pattern, and encouraged walking and social interaction within the neighbourhood.

Dant’s impact on Edmonton can be seen everywhere. The new Valley Line LRT line passes by (but not through) Avonmore, Bonnie Doon, Holyrood and Strathhearn as well as several Mill Woods neighbourhood communities. If you step off to visit any of these southside communities and stroll through them you will see people walking their dogs along quiet boulevards, kids playing street hockey—moving their nets aside when the occasional car ambles by—or neighbours having chats while seated on community benches in the green area surrounding their community centre.