A new United Nations research hub celebrating lessons in urban rejuvenation has found a home in Toronto’s Regent Park, a milestone for a neighborhood that began as a mid-century “garden city” before suffering decades of neglect and disrepair.

Built after World War II to provide affordable housing for veterans and new immigrants, Regent Park was designed to resemble a rural oasis in Canada’s largest city, with low-rise social housing projects set amidst sprawling green spaces and narrow roads. But the absence of major through-streets discouraged businesses and cut the community off from the downtown core, creating a haven for crime by the 1980s.