For his first entrepreneurial stint at the age of 5, Carlos Franqui cut roses from his mother’s garden and sold handmade bouquets to his neighbors from his red Radio Flyer wagon.
Fast forward to today, Franqui now runs Floratorium, creating large-scale floral installations for commercial and hospitality spaces, as well as events and private properties. His installations are a familiar sight in Manhattan, crawling across façades, outdoor dining sheds, and even interiors of popular establishments like Marea, Bungalow, A Pasta Bar, and Bar Primi.
Growing up in the coastal town of Fajardo, Puerto Rico, Franqui was “always drawn to the way nature takes over spaces. I was always fascinated by how nature would always win, and she would always have the last word.”
Casual Italian restaurant Bar Primi’s Penn District location; photo by the Ingalls
In 2004, Franqui moved to Miami for his master’s in advertising followed by a fashion career with Chanel, Neiman Marcus, and Intermix, which brought him to New York. Franqui left the industry seven years later to raise his children.
The leap into the world of flowers originated from his son’s first birthday where he overspent on flowers, prompting him to create his own. He attended FlowerSchool New York and landed his first project with boutique store L’Appartement Sézane on Elizabeth Street.
“Flowers are powerful things that we take for granted because we see them all the time,” Franqui says. “But once you take them out of their context and put them where they’re not supposed to be, they shock you—because they’re not supposed to be growing out of a window.”
Save for the hand-braided curly willow foundation, all the flowers Franqui uses are artificial, combining wisteria, camellia, jasmine, and other fauna to dream up lifelike installations. “If Mother Nature were let wild in this room, how would she activate it? She would be following the light, and I always try to have movement that is organic and soft and always toward the same direction.”
Bungalow, an Indian restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood
During the pandemic, Franqui wanted to find a way to bring joy to the city. Once restaurants received the green light for outdoor dining, Floratorium built and decorated a space for Maman. Franqui has since worked on more than 30 locations of the café across the country.
Most recently, Floratorium managed a project in partnership with FlowerSchool for Porsche’s Met Gala afterparty at Soho House, filling the cobblestone street outside the building with a labyrinth of moss, lavender, and pampas grass.
Franqui continues expanding into new ventures with event space Daschner Castle in Pine Bush, New York, a home line of premade floral arrangements, and a book documenting his flower projects during the pandemic.
“Never take for granted things that happen in life, because those are the things that are going to prepare you for your next step,” he says. “I always look back at things and pay homage to them, because I did them for a reason.”
A version of this article originally appeared in HD’s July 2024 issue.
