"This new project offers a meaningful opportunity to reset, restore trust, and celebrate the neighbourhood." That sentence comes from a City of Toronto procurement document, which is an unusual place to find an apology. It appears in the request for proposals StreetARToronto issued for the west retaining wall on Bathurst Street between Davenport Road and Burnside Drive. That is the concrete wall that runs beside anyone walking, cycling or driving up the hill toward St. Clair.
The wall now carries a new mural by Alex Bacon and Que Rock. It was unveiled on September 16 at the Tollkeeper's Cottage, the small museum at the bottom of the same hill. The process behind it says a lot about how this stretch of Casa Loma is expected to look and who gets a say. The City framed the project as a correction from the start. Every choice in the brief, from the subject matter to the makeup of the painting crew, follows from that framing.
The Mural That Came Before
This is the second StreetARToronto mural on this wall. The first went up in 2013. According to the City's own account in the new RFP, that commission went to a U.S.-based artist collective that did not travel to Toronto to paint the work. The collective sent a team to carry out its design instead. The RFP says many local residents and artists experienced that decision "as dismissive of both local talent and community voice."
City documents rarely put it that plainly. StreetARToronto, known as StART, launched in 2012 and sits within the City's Transportation Services Division. Its programs are designed for streets and public spaces, with the stated goals of encouraging walking and cycling and mentoring emerging artists. The Tollkeeper's Cottage gives a simpler origin story in its September newsletter, noting that the program "was started as a way to reduce graffiti." The 2013 mural answered the graffiti brief. By the City's own account, it fell short on the community side. The 2026 commission was written to fix that.
How the Second Attempt Was Built
The fix shows up first in the procedure. The selection steps were spread across most of 2026, and several took place within a few blocks of the wall itself.
- Early 2026. StART met at the Tollkeeper's Cottage to plan the artist competition. The Cottage's March newsletter described community members discussing possible approaches before artists were invited to present concepts.
- Shortlisting. An open call produced a roster of qualified artists. A project Advisory Panel, assembled for its knowledge of local residents, businesses and artists, shortlisted five artists. Each shortlisted artist was paid to develop a site-specific proposal.
- June 10. The Casa Loma Residents Association invited the public to review four shortlisted concepts at Wychwood Barns. A feedback survey stayed open until June 18.
- July through September. The RFP set production for the summer, with the whole mural expected to be finished by September 28, 2026.
- September 16. The unveiling took place at the Cottage from 5 to 7 p.m. It included a guided walk along the mural led by the artists, music by DJ Theysii and refreshments inside.
The makeup of the crew was also part of the correction. The RFP required each shortlisted artist to lead a team of at least five: the lead artist, two assistants and two mentees ready to move from midsize walls to large ones. The 2013 mural was carried out by a crew sent from outside the country. The 2026 brief made mentorship a condition of every proposal.
Here is the scale behind those requirements. The painted surface is about 2,740 square feet, spread across smooth concrete panels of different lengths and heights, each set in its own concrete frame. The implementation budget was capped at $50,750 plus HST. That amount covered artist fees, mentorship, design, materials, equipment and production. Spread evenly, that comes to roughly $18.50 per square foot before tax, and it pays for a full mentorship program along with the paint.
A Brief About the Hill Itself
The second part of the correction is subject matter. The 2013 grievance was about outsiders. The 2026 theme statement points the wall at the ground it is built into.
The Advisory Panel wrote the themes together. Their starting point is the hill. Davenport Road began as an Indigenous trail and trade route, part of the Carrying Place Trail that connected Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe. The slope Bathurst climbs here traces back further still, to an older lake. In the panel's words:
"With its genesis in the receding waters of Lake Iroquois that 10,000 years ago preceded today's Lake Ontario, natural and climatic evolution led to the layered histories of forest, shoreline, and passage that continue to inform the site today. The mural should express velocity and momentum as forces shaping both landscape and experience, the surge of water, the pull of the hill, and the persistence of roots."
The brief asked artists to suggest movement such as ascent, exertion and flow without depicting human figures. It allowed medicine plants, trees and trails to appear "as carriers of knowledge and continuity." Given the wall's location, the theme is literal. Anyone climbing the hill is walking up the old shoreline the brief describes. The design was expected to reward "repeated discovery," which suits a wall that people mostly see in passing, many times a week.
These instructions were the direction the artists received. None of the published material includes a written description of the finished composition. The fairest way to judge how Bacon and Que Rock interpreted the brief is to walk the wall slowly, ideally uphill.
One practical line in the brief explains the mural's density. Designs were to "avoid large flat areas and be visually dense enough to discourage tagging." StART's original anti-graffiti purpose is still part of the contract, now combined with a subject the neighborhood helped choose.
The Cottage at the Bottom of the Wall
The Tollkeeper's Cottage at 750 Davenport Road, on the northwest corner of Davenport and Bathurst, was more than a venue for the unveiling. StART chose to plan its competition there. In September, the Cottage's newsletter described the wall as running "from Davenport up to the crest of the hill" and congratulated the result with "Take a look as you pass by. Well done!"
The connection makes sense. The Community History Project owns, restored and runs the Cottage as a museum about tolls, roads and nineteenth-century life. The mural's theme is movement along an old route. The Cottage tells the later chapter of that route, when the road was tolled.
For anyone planning a visit this fall, the details have changed recently:
- Saturday hours are now noon to 4 p.m. The September newsletter says the closing time moved earlier because fewer visitors came in the late afternoon. That replaces the 5 p.m. closing still shown on parts of the website.
- First Sundays are open days too. The next one is Sunday, October 4, 2026, which is tomorrow.
- Walks are booked by email. Once four people have signed up for a walk, the Cottage sends out the start and end points. Its list of locally organized walks includes a Casa Loma tour, supported by suggested donations.
- A poetry circle may start in November. It depends on enough interest. Jeannette is collecting names at [email protected].
The Cottage's September program also shows how active the museum has been around the mural's completion. It held a Toronto history trivia night on September 24, a Truth and Reconciliation gathering on September 26, and ran a booth at the Spadina Museum Fall Festival on September 27, beside the apple orchard. The planning meeting, the unveiling and the walking tours all ran through this small building on the corner. That is a big part of why the 2026 mural reads as local work.
What the Wall Now Records
For more than a decade, the wall stood as a reminder of a commission that left local artists out. Its replacement shows the City's process working differently, and the difference is written into the paperwork. The panel was drawn from people who know the area. Five artists were paid to compete. Four concepts went before residents at Wychwood Barns. Every team had to include two mentees. And the subject is the hill the wall holds up.
The Cottage opens at noon on Saturdays, and the mural climbs the west side of Bathurst from Davenport, steps from its door.
The way a street's public spaces are cared for is part of what an address means in Casa Loma, and it is a question we look at closely with every client. If you are weighing a property near the Davenport hill and want a discreet read on how the area is changing, Taylor Townley invites you to Request a Confidential Consultation.
