The new El Paseo location reflects Greater Palm Springs’ appeal as a design destination and follows a series of investments by the furniture maker’s parent company in the region.
One of America’s best-known modern furniture brands has chosen Palm Desert for its largest North American retail store, bringing a major new design-oriented tenant to El Paseo.
Herman Miller, whose furniture helped define midcentury American design, has opened at The Gardens on El Paseo. The company announced the opening Oct. 9, describing a store that combines furniture and accessories for homes and workplaces with exhibits, archival materials and space for public events.
Inside the new Herman Miller store in Palm Desert.
The opening is notable not only for the size of the location, but also for its decision to establish that kind of presence in Greater Palm Springs rather than a much larger metropolitan market.
The company has not publicly detailed its site-selection criteria. But its broader retail strategy and recent investments in the Coachella Valley offer some context for the move: the region has a distinctive architectural identity, a substantial audience interested in modernist design and an established luxury shopping district.
Why Greater Palm Springs Fits the Brand
Palm Springs and its neighboring communities have long been associated with the modernist architects and designers whose work helped shape Herman Miller’s identity. That legacy now supports a sizable tourism and cultural economy, not merely a collection of historic buildings.
Modernism Week drew more than 111,000 attendees in February 2026, generating an estimated $62 million in regional economic activity, according to organizers. Its audience includes architects, collectors, homeowners and travelers interested in the kind of design for which Herman Miller is known.
The Palm Desert store also follows an earlier investment by MillerKnoll, Herman Miller’s parent company. Its Design Within Reach brand opened a store in downtown Palm Springs in February 2025, expanding the company’s direct relationship with the region’s design-oriented consumers.
At that opening, Debbie Propst, MillerKnoll’s president of global retail, called Palm Springs “a natural location for our offering”. The following year, MillerKnoll Chief Executive Andi Owen told investors the Design Within Reach store continued to perform well.
MillerKnoll has also sought to connect its retail brands with the area’s architecture beyond conventional showrooms. In 2025, Design Within Reach collaborated on a furnished experience at Palm Desert’s historic Wave House, a restored midcentury home associated with architect Walter S. White.
The new Herman Miller store comes as MillerKnoll pursues a national strategy to expand its retail network. In March, Owen told investors the company intended to approximately double its Herman Miller and Design Within Reach store footprint over several years.
A High-Profile Addition to El Paseo
The location places Herman Miller in The Gardens on El Paseo, alongside luxury retailers and other furnishings brands. For the shopping center, the addition broadens its assortment of home-focused merchants, which already includes Arhaus, Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma.
Inside the new location, shoppers can explore Herman Miller furniture, seating and accessories, while the company plans to use the space for exhibitions, community conversations and other design programming. The opening announcement did not disclose the store’s square footage, development cost or number of employees.
An Exhibition Tied to the Desert’s Architecture
Herman Miller is marking the opening with Hot Line, an exhibition of photographs commissioned from Tag Christof. The images examine modernist buildings around Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley as they undergo restoration, reuse and other changes.
The exhibition gives the new store a local connection while reinforcing the company’s association with the architects and designers of the midcentury period, including George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames and Alexander Girard.
“I love these buildings because, even in states of change or transition, they are totems of a time of surging optimism that feels impossible today,” Christof said in the company’s announcement.
Hot Line is scheduled to remain on view through Modernism Week in February 2027. Herman Miller Palm Desert is at 73-425 El Paseo, Suite 110. The store lists hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, subject to seasonal changes.
