Adams became a designer of low-density residential developments that were commonly referred to as " garden suburbs . " After the Halifax Explosion in 1917 , Adams designed the Hydrostone section using Garden City principles . In the same year he published '' Rural planning and development : a study of rural conditions and problems in Canada , '' one of the earliest books to advocate the use of land use controls . He also designed a portion of Corner Brook , Newfoundland . He worked with Halifax architect Andrew R. Cobb on this project . On other projects in Quebec and Nova Scotia he partnered with Ross and Macdonald of Montreal . He was later responsible for surveys and a plan for New York City . On returning to the United Kingdom , Thomas Adams became one of the early presidents of the Institute of Landscape Architects ( ILA ) which became the Landscape Institute . In 1932 , he was asked by Massachusetts Institute of Technology architect William Emerson to design a city planning curriculum for the university . His son , Frederick Adams , was nominated by Emerson to be the first department head of City Planning at the MIT and was named a " Pioneer Planner " by the American Institute of Certified Planners . Towards the end of his life , Adams served as a visiting lecturer in his son 's new department
Halifax Explosion
Halifax Explosion
Thomas Adams (architect)