Some time after a 1970 mall renovation, dozens of animal sculptures vanished. But for about a decade prior to that disappearance, the artwork turned a shopping center into a family-friendly space speckled by sculpted giraffes, kangaroos, walruses and penguins.
In 1960, the J.C. Nichols Company commissioned local artist Jac T. Bowen to create something special for its new shopping center at 63rd and Troost, then known as The Landing. According to author Marybeth Lake, who chronicled Bowen’s career, the mall’s name was derived from Westport Landing, the rock ledge near the Missouri and Kaw rivers where Kansas City first emerged as a trading center in 1834. Bowen took that origin story a step further. Drawing inspiration from the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, he reimagined it as a Missouri River paddleboat, loaded with animals “about to come in for a landing,” Lake wrote.
The result was a sprawling installation of roughly 30 sculptures arranged along the pedestrian mall. Bowen, who’d already established a relationship with J.C. Nichols through his work weatherproofing the beloved bunny sculptures throughout the Country Club Plaza, designed The Landing’s animals to withstand both the elements and rough play. Built primarily from cement and fiberglass, according to Lake, the sculptures were durable enough for children to climb and sit on daily…