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Universal Man

1976 sculpturesBronze sculptures in CanadaCulture of TorontoModernist sculptureNorth York
Outdoor sculptures in CanadaSculptures of men in CanadaStatues in Canada
Universal Man
Universal Man

Universal Man is a sculpture by Gerald Gladstone located outside the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in North York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, since 1994. The 6.5-metre (21 ft) bronze figure was originally located in a prominent location at the foot of the CN Tower, there located to "emphasize the human aspects of the project". It was commissioned by CN Rail in 1972 at a cost of approximately $100,000 (approximately $626,000 in 2020 dollars) and the statue was unveiled in 1976. At the time of unveiling, it was the largest statue cast by the Morris Singer foundry.According to Gladstone, the work was inspired by da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. The giant arms and legs of the figure represent the range of motion possible to a human figure. Until 1987, the statue was the centrepiece of a plaza near the CN Tower that was popular with tourists. This plaza would be replaced with Bobbie Rosenfeld Park. In 1987, it was moved from its site during the construction of the Rogers Centre (then known as SkyDome), and was not replaced reportedly due to lack of space in the area. This, and the damage inflicted on the statue during moving (right hand broken off), infuriated Gladstone. CN moved the statue to a piece of vacant railway land by the Gardiner Expressway and Spadina Avenue, and placed the statue face down in the dirt field where it remained for several years. In 1994, it was restored (with damaged hand repaired) to public view by the government of North York who placed it by the Dufferin entrance to Yorkdale Mall. This was to Gladstone's satisfaction.Since the municipalities that made up Metropolitan Toronto were amalgamated into the current city of Toronto in 1998, ownership of the sculpture was transferred to Oxford Properties, owner of Yorkdale Shopping Centre.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Universal Man (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Universal Man
Dufferin Street, Toronto

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Latitude Longitude
N 43.725526 ° E -79.4557739 °
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Address

Lot J1

Dufferin Street
M6A 2T3 Toronto (North York)
Ontario, Canada
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CIBC 750 Lawrence
CIBC 750 Lawrence

CIBC 750 Lawrence is a two-tower office complex in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, built in the early 1980s. It is part of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's (CIBC) head office operations outside of Commerce Court and the main headquarters of CIBC Credit Card Services, including Visa call centres and Visa operations. Employees in Visa are members of the Steel Workers Union in Toronto, USW Local 8300. The union represents those workers who used to be called the Union of Bank Employees Local 2104. The Visa call centre at 750 is now the only unionized department in CIBC, but at the time of the strike in 1986, the Commerce Court Mail Room, Stationery Department, Mortgage Department, a few branches in downtown Toronto, and the Internal Mail Courier Trucks that transported correspondences within the greater Toronto area were also unionized. Although the Stationery Department, Mortgage Department and the branches did not take part in the strike, they supported the workers. During negotiations with CIBC, the Mortgage Department broke away from the union and never joined again. 750 Lawrence consists of two buildings, one six stories (West) and the other, ten stories (East), built by Toronto-based firm Bregman + Hamann Architects (B+H) in 1981. B+H is the same firm involved in renovations in 2001. Even though CIBC sold most of its buildings, including Commerce Court, in the late 1990s, 750 Lawrence continues to be owned by CIBC, and is managed by Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions for CIBC. It is located in Lawrence Heights across the street from Lawrence Square Shopping Centre and a short walk to Lawrence West subway station. When 750 Lawrence opened in 1981, it housed CIBC Mortgage Department which took up three floors in the West Tower, CIBC Marketing which took up two floors in the East Tower and one floor in the West, several smaller departments, and CIBC Dealer Plan department. Dealer Plan had a small parking lot where repossessed cars and small trucks were kept. That parking lot is now known as the Contractors' parking lot today. 750 Lawrence used to be a much smaller building that housed the CIBC Stationery Department. The west wall of the West Tower was damaged in 2001 by a large fire at a housing development located directly to the west at 760 Lawrence. Every window on that west wall was cracked or broken except one. Until 2001, 750 Lawrence housed an internal branch for employees. The branch was a sub-unit of the head office branch at Commerce Court West and shared the same transit number, 0002. Even though this branch has closed, the building itself maintains the same transit number. The space occupied by this branch was renovated in 2001 to be an employee lounge and six conference rooms and four Visa Training rooms. In 2014, CIBC installed 4 new banking machines in the West main floor. Two of those machines were among the first CIBC machines to offer an envelope-free deposit service, where the machine scans your bill deposit and counts it. Between the two wings is a tree-lined courtyard with benches and used for staff events.

Wilson Yard
Wilson Yard

Wilson Yard (also known as the Wilson Complex) is the largest of the Toronto Transit Commission's subway yards and bus garages. The subway yard services subway trains on Line 1 Yonge–University. The facility is located on Transit Road north of Wilson Avenue, in the former city of North York (now part of Toronto), between Wilson and Sheppard West stations.The site is on a large parcel of land first was once part of Downsview Airport, built in 1936. During World War II the airport was turned into a military facility, most often known as Canadian Forces Base Downsview. The site became available to the TTC around the 1970s, after the federal government sold off part of the base lands as surplus. In 1974 the TTC considered interim expedients for storage of subway vehicles, until the Wilson Yard became available.The 60-acre (24 ha) yard was completed in 1976 and began operations in 1977. The facility also houses a bus barn and maintenance facilities for subway cars. When Downsview (the original name of Sheppard West) station opened in 1996, a northern yard entry track to the extended mainline was constructed to provide better train access to the station, situated north of the yard. By 2010, a tunnel was constructed to provide a link to a proposed northerly expansion of the yard to the mainline just south of Downsview station, though track was not laid and it was left dormant until the yard expansion project was completed in 2018. When it finally opened, this new link provided an entry/exit to the new northern section of the yard for trains servicing the Toronto–York Spadina Subway Extension.Since May 2018, trains going out of service at the Wilson Yard do so by deadheading southbound from Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station, instead of northbound from Wilson station. This avoids northbound trains going out of service after the evening rush hour having to cross the southbound track, which was the practice prior to this time.Modifications to the Wilson Yard were made to accommodate the new Toronto Rocket trains, the Toronto–York Spadina Subway Extension and increased demand on Line 1 Yonge–University. Work included expansion of the carhouse, a new hostler platform to support the new north-end entry/exit track, a new north-end runaround track connecting 8 new storage tracks in the west yard, a new power substation and a new training building with a simulator for TR trains.Opened in September 2018, the new hostler platform and north-end entry/exit track helps to reduce traffic delays by 44% in the early morning when work cars return from their night shift and service trains depart.Automatic train control is being added to all the TTC's heavy rail routes. Automatic Train Control was functional within the 60 acre Wilson Yard in 2019. Spokesmen said robot control of trains, within the yard, would increase safety and decrease delays.