New Walkerville mural uses QR code to offer lessons into history of town

The Rosati Group has added a new way of looking at painted murals in the city of Windsor.

“Makes it a lot more interesting,” said local artist Daniel Bombardier, who is also known as Denial. He was commissioned to create a mural behind the 100-year-old Strathcona building on Wyandotte Street at Devonshire Road celebrating the history of Walkerville.

“Oh yeah, some of the stuff I did not know and got to learn throughout the process,” said Bombardier of the experience collaborating with the Rosati Group on the project. “Generally, public art is inherently very powerful and it can change communities and affect neighbourhoods.”

Vince Rosati, VP of project development, wanted to showcase the history of the building and area, and told CTV News Windsor, “There's so much history here that a lot of people in the city don't know about and through everything that we're doing with the distillery project and revitalization of the area we wanted to keep telling that story.”

The stories are shared through a QR code found near the mural.

“You scan it on your phone and it'll bring you to a site where you can click on each of the pieces in the mural,” explained Rosati, pointing out people can learn about famous mobster Al Capone, a frequent visitor to Windsor, and Russell Farrow, who was Walkerville’s last mayor.

The mural also pays tribute to former tenants of the building.

“The Rosati Group has revitalized it and brought it back to its former glory,” said Steve White, landscape architect.

Albert Kahn Associates designed the Strathcona and 17 other buildings in Walkerville. The group would like to add this QR code system to all of those properties.

“We're currently in the process of creating a plaque program to identify Kahn buildings that were actually designed by Albert Kahn himself,” said White.

The plaque program would be similar to the one found at the St. Denis Centre where Hall of Fame basketball coach Paul "Doc" Thomas sat following retirement and before his passing in 2017.

There is also a QR coded plaque at the WFCU Centre honouring fallen soldier Cpl. Andrew Grenon.

A paneled mural with QR codes is located outside of the Chimczuk museum.

“There will be a lot more murals to come. A lot more history to be shared and hopefully for each of our murals that we do we can add the interactive element,” said Rosati.