Plans for a new downtown plant shop, which will have a soft opening Friday, have changed since designer James Curtis unveiled them in September.
Instead of opening his shop in a small space at 315 Third St., Curtis will open in a larger space at 207 Florida St., adjacent to Poor Boy Lloyd’s. The store will be called The Shop by Outside Stimuli, a name that refers to Curtis’ biophilic design business, Outside Stimuli.
Curtis, a Detroit native who came to Baton Rouge from Phoenix in January with his fiancée, says the 1,200-square-foot space on Florida Street had better natural light and a better feel for the plants and biophilic designs he plans to sell there. The space, last home to an athletic shoe store, had been vacant for more than a year.
“This is a much better space for a plant shop,” Curtis says. “It has a terrific feel. I love the space.”
Meanwhile, Curtis still has plans for the 600-square-foot storefront on Third Street, where he originally planned to open. In early 2020, he plans to develop it into a shared creative space, akin to Mid City Makers, where independent, local artists can showcase and sell their works.
“It’s to give people who work at the kitchen table and sell on Etsy a physical location, a brick and click, as they call it,” he says. “It’s a way for artists and makers and people who do things that are not typically considered fine art to actually have a creative space.”
Curtis will put out a call for artists and makers interested in selling in the space in January.
He’s also planning to develop urban gardens in available vacant lots downtown. He plans to set aside 10% of revenues generated at The Shop by Outside Stimuli to support his efforts to develop the gardens.
“We came here from Phoenix, a city that is also growing its downtown and trying to figure out its downtown identity,” he says. “So this has come about after having a lot of conversations with people about what downtown Baton Rouge is and what it wants to be.”
