Shane Friesenhahn, founder of The Botanical Mix floral service, has a 20,000-square-foot showroom in the Dallas Market Center where he mostly sells to architects, builders, and interior designers. And then there’s his studio in the Thompson Dallas hotel, where he sometimes offers floral arranging classes, like the one he has planned for Mother’s Day. But it was the Corrigan Tower on Pacific Avenue, a 1952 building that was purchased by developer John Kirtland in 2012 and converted into luxury apartments, that most recently caught his eye.
“I walk my dog over there—there’s a beautiful park called Pacific Plaza Park,” Friesenhahn says. “I was eyeing that location for a while, and it had nothing for the longest time. I decided to work with John on it. What’s funny is John Kirtland used to be the drummer for [Deep Blue Something]. So he’s a creative, too.”
With Kirtland’s blessing, Friesenhahn opened the new retail shop in the ground-floor space at the corner of Pacific and North Saint Paul Street in October, and he’s already completed a refresh for spring. “It is going to be more of an artful experience, more exhibition-style,” he says. “Minimal, modern, clean, young—to kind of gear it toward the downtown professionals.”
His designs may be artful and edgy, but Friesenhahn says his floral origins are more rustic. “I grew up on a ranch in deep south Texas,” he says. “I’m nature driven. I just kind of fell into it. My mom’s friends, they have really nice homes, even second homes, and I would design for them. And then it just slowly but surely became its own business.”
In his new storefront, he will also have some of his original art available for sale along with signature candles by Tiffany Moon, healing crystals and minerals, and fresh and dried florals. “It’s young, it’s fresh, it’s new, it’s colorful, edgy—a little punk, if you will, in a good way,” he says. “So basically Dallas.” Botanical Mix by Shane Friesenhahn, 1900 Pacific Ave. 469-387-8780.
This story originally appeared in the April issue of D Magazine with the headline “Urban Flora.” Write to [email protected].
Author
