[4] The report formed the basis for the 1963 Metropolitan Region Scheme for Perth and Fremantle, a legal instrument for regulating land-use and development in the urban area.
[4] In 1953 he returned to the UK to take up the Chair of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool and, following his work in Perth, he was employed variously as a consultant planner and academic in New Zealand, Canada, and America.
He subsequently returned to Perth and continued to play an important role in its development, amongst other things crafting plans for Joondalup and Midland regional centres, and for the campus of Murdoch University.
[9] Following his death in 1997, the Western Australian Minister for Planning acknowledged Stephenson's contributions to the development of the state, and his vision as providing the blueprint for the growth of the metropolitan region since 1963.
[11] On 28 August 2011, the WA State Government announced that the recently completed building informally known as one40william would be renamed Gordon Stephenson House.