Cities need look no further than Chicago’s “Bean,” Anish Kapoor’s iconic Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park, to realize how investment in the arts can pay off.

The following ten projects—all completed during the past five years—represent creative restorations of unused land, ranging from the transformation of an old brickyard into a center for environmental and socially responsible nonprofits to the construction of a new branch of the Louvre Museum on top of an old coal mine.

With a focus on its historic Union Station, Los Angeles is trying to create transit links between downtown and surrounding historic neighborhoods—and invited a ULI advisory services panel to weigh in.