PLANS FOR REGENT PARK, 1951

This 1951 promotional material for the new Regent Park housing project reflected the Housing Authority of Toronto's optimism for its urban design. As part of the trend in social welfare development, planners intended to provide low-rent housing in a superblock based on American models. It also would replace one of Toronto's worst slums, South Cabbagetown, with almost 30 hectares of clean and pleasant 'garden-suburbs.' Unfortunately, the plan lacked road networks and other design elements that would have integrated it with the surrounding neighbourhood, and Regent Park failed to live up to its promise. It currently is being redesigned by a team of city planners and local architects.

City of Toronto Archives, Series 723, File 305, Regent Park (North) Housing Project, Illustration, with permission from Toronto Community Housing