Malcolm Moran / Northland Shopping Center

I was finally able to get my hands on a Giraffe family by Malcolm Moran  (1923 - 2011).

In the original box from Hudson's! They were the anchor tenant and the company who hired Victor Gruen to design the Northland Shopping Center

Northland Shopping Center (1954) by Victor Gruen. Located in Southfield, MI, a Detroit suburb. At the time, it was the largest shopping center in the country. Alvin Lustig collaborated with Gruen on the identity and signage. A number of artists were commissioned to do sculpture for the center.  Besides Moran, there was Marshall Fredericks, Joseph Anthony McDonnell, and Lily Saarinen (Eero's wife).

Source: Victor Gruen and Associates

The original Moran sculptures in bronze stood 25 feet high.

Image: Life Magazine

Hudson's offered dainty mementos for sale at the mall.

Source: Detroit Free Press, 1954

Me too Billy, me too.

Source: Detroit Free Press, 1954

Source: Architectural Forum

1961

Source: Detroit Public Library

A fish sculpture by Moran was also at Northland.  In 1975, Northland Center was enclosed as a mall, and a food court was added to the complex in 1991. The mall closed in 2015 and the City of Southfield purchased some of the sculptures. The whereabouts of the giraffe family is unknown.  

I visited Northland in 2015. More about that, here.

1956 photo of the Lustig-designed water tower located at the edge of the shopping center.

Photo: Mike Grobbel

And Lustig's N on the box.

Raymor also distributed Moran's stabiles.

Source: Raymor, Modern in the Tradition of Good Taste

Source: Raymor, Modern in the Tradition of Good Taste