Here in Michigan, Northland Mall in Southfield (Detroit suburb),
originally built about 1955, is recognized as Michigan's first shopping
mall.  However, after many building campaigns and aggressive updating, it
looks pretty much like any other mall you've ever seen.

Michigan's *second* mall, Frandor, in Lansing MI (the state capital, in
the palm of the mitten), dates from 1956.  It was very solidly and
expensively built, and has so much original fabric that I envisioned it as
a future historic restoration of a 1950s mall.  It was enclosed, yes, in
the 1970s, but with cheap wooden stuff that didn't seem to do much harm to
the original mall walkways and overhangs.  And the survival of the
original brightly-colored 1956 logo signage (I'll put a photo on my web
site soon) is remarkable, one each at the north, south, and west entrances
to the complex.

Imagine my dismay to see that Frandor is being redeveloped.  The old
signage is gone from the north and west entrances, and the one at the
south stands next to a "Frandor Redevelopment" sign.  The 1970s wooden
enclosures have been torn off (briefly at least revealing the original
work still extant underneath), but at least part of the complex is being
demolished.

Ann Arbor has a similar but smaller complex called Arborland, dating from
the early 1960s.  Arborland has one major sign, with a colossal red neon
"A" that is one of the region's best recognized logos.  That will probably
remain, but the mall is being replaced with "big box" retailing.  Most of
it has already been demolished.

One part which has not yet been demolished is the building occupied by
Service Merchandise.  It was built for Montgomery Ward in 1962 or so,
designed by Louis Redstone.  Redstone had the idea of incorporating art
into architecture, and on this building he included a vertical glazed
brick mural of his own design.  It's about 7.5 feet wide and about 40 feet
tall, and depicts a tree or vine with green leaves, and various animals
and objects and human figures, all rendered in colored brick.  There is a
harp with darkened mortar joints for strings.  I have always enjoyed the
thing, and stopped to see it whenever I had occasion to be at Arborland
Mall.

This peculiar mural will soon be destroyed along with the building.

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]