CHICAGO, March 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Herman Miller
(NASDAQ: MLHR), the global leader in innovative design and
furnishing solutions, announces the opening of a standalone
location in Chicago's Fulton
Market. After transitioning from a traditional trade-only showroom
in the Merchandise Mart, Herman
Miller brings the power of its growing family of eight
brands together under one roof in its new retail, showroom and
exhibition space.
"Today, more than ever, our customers are focused on creating
useful places that matter," said Andi
Owen, Chief Executive Officer, Herman Miller
Group. "Our integrated approach blends home and work
environments to respond not just to the needs of our core A&D
customers, but also business leaders grappling with how to evolve
their offices for tomorrow. Likewise, we're also meeting the
growing demands of consumers who now, perhaps more than ever, have
a heightened need, awareness and appreciation of good design at
home."
The 45,000-square-foot location occupies a landmark 1920's brick
building with an adjoining five-story newbuild, complete with a
rooftop and outdoor pavilion. Developed by Fulton St. Companies in
close collaboration with Herman
Miller's in-house design team, the structure retains the
original façade and seamlessly blends into the surrounding historic
meatpacking corridor, turned tech hotspot.
"There is a lot of momentum in this neighborhood," said
Tim Straker, Chief Marketing
Officer, Herman Miller Group. "As people continue to invest in
living, working, and shopping in the West Loop, we saw an
opportunity to be one of the first-movers and major anchors in the
neighborhood. Whether a retail or trade customer, visiting a
vibrant space in a vibrant neighborhood creates the kind of
experience our customers crave."
Herman Miller has designed a
customer-first experience to empower every client with a breadth of
product unlike any other in the industry – all in one place. The
result embraces the collective synergies of the entire family of
brands across retail and trade.
EXPANDING CONSUMER REACH
That collective synergy
starts on the ground floor, where for the first time, shoppers will
discover Herman Miller's three,
distinct retail brands – Design Within Reach, HAY and
Herman Miller – side by side.
From furnishings that multitask, accessories to enhance every
moment and performance seating that increases productivity; each
brand offers smart, well-designed solutions for how we live and
work today.
"We're thrilled to be one of the first retailers in this
developing business and residential district within the city of
Chicago." Debbie Propst, President, Herman Miller Group
Retail. "We've built a destination, and as the neighborhood
evolves, we will continue to serve as a resource for the people who
live and work nearby and look forward to helping them create a
space that they'll love to call home."
Herman Miller
Herman Miller is dedicated to
selling performance seating and products that support the home
office and small business worker. Created in direct response to
present-day customer demands, the location is the fourth concept
store of its kind and invites the public to test-drive Herman Miller's award-winning performance
seating collection and experience the benefits of sitting
well. At Fulton Market, A&D customers visiting the design
showrooms by appointment will also have convenient access to the
new seating experience as they enter and exit through the
lobby.
Design Within Reach
Design Within Reach (DWR) has
given people access to the best in authentic modern
design since its founding in 1998. It seeks out and
amplifies many great voices in design: the emerging, the
established, and the legendary who came before, to create and
source exceptionally crafted, built-to-last, and beautifully
designed furnishings meant to be enjoyed over a lifetime and move
with you – from home to home, generation to generation. With a
forward-looking omnichannel approach, DWR has become more than a
home for midcentury design – it is the source for modern
living.
The company opens its second small-format store in recent weeks
at Fulton Market – the first opened in Southampton, New York, earlier this month.
From highly functional furnishings by Norm Architects and
Chris Liljenberg Halstrøm, bold colors and materials by Studio
Sayso, craft tradition demonstrated by Pat
Kim and purist icons by Charles
and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, the evolved in-store
experience features a curated product assortment that reflects the
needs of the local Chicago
consumer and embraces a wider point of view on modern aesthetic
sensibilities. To satisfy the desire for instant gratification, the
new DWR store also offers finishing touches such as accessories,
books and décor, available to shop in-store and take home (a
departure from the brand's traditional shop-and-ship showroom
format).
HAY
Danish design brand HAY collaborates with
some of the world's most forward-thinking designers to create
products that serve a range of spaces that span from the bedroom,
to the kitchen, to the conference room and many different
environments in between. "Our collection embraces the beauty of
quotidian life by creating fresh takes on a wide range of products
that are part of our everyday, from a toothbrush to a paper bin to
a sofa," said Rolf Hay, Co-Founder
and Creative Director of HAY Furniture and Lighting. At HAY,
shoppers will find fresh interpretations of color, form and
function, to create vibrant and bright spaces. "I love working on
products that we have in our hand everyday, and I strongly believe
in the power that colors and beauty can have on us: We
automatically take better care of an object that we find
beautiful," said Mette Hay,
Co-Founder and Creative Director of HAY Accessories.
Under the umbrella of Herman Miller Group, HAY at Fulton Market
continues to deliver on the brand's mission to offer accessible,
good design to many. Discover attainable, colorful and stylish
products like desk accessories and office organizers ($5-$55), planters
and garden tools ($20-$55), lighting ($55-$695) and
furniture ranging from accent tables (starting at $95) to sofas (from $1995) to outdoor furnishings ($95-$895), and
more.
EMPOWERING DESIGNERS AND END USERS
The combined power
of ground-floor retail complements expressions from additional
Herman Miller Group showrooms on floors above, making it easier for
local and visiting A&D customers to find inspiration across the
company's full portfolio of contract and residential brands.
Backed by decades of research and insights, "Herman Miller at Fulton Market addresses the
biggest questions CEOs, executives, facility managers, commercial
realtors and designers are asking: What's next?" explained Straker.
"We approached the new showrooms with that same forward-looking
outlook and have introduced real solutions to bring people back
together."
Herman Miller
As
designers arrive at Herman
Miller on floor three, they'll enter the heart of the
design center. Maharam Digital Projects' Arche Noah by Sonnhild Kestler sets the backdrop for a lively,
open lounge and meeting area – a space to gather, collaborate,
engage and learn together. Trade customers will experience the
company's signature human-centric approach with a positive and
progressive outlook, which addresses re-entry into the workplace
and new ways of working with a more distributed workforce,
including solutions to reengage and rebuild a sense of community.
Here, designers will discover inspiration for ancillary spaces with
an emphasis on furnishings for meeting, lounge, bistro and communal
spaces, sprinkled with more private nooks for personal work and
concentration throughout. Highlights include the debut of OE1, an
agile, highly mobile modular workstation collection designed by
Sam Hecht and Kim Colin.
A staircase leads down to a hardworking showroom on the second
floor, where designers can compare a multitude of workstation
options side-by-side – peppered with archival objects celebrating
more than a century of good design, as well as accessories
available to shop downstairs at DWR and HAY. Designers will also
find product highlights from subsidiaries Colebrook Bosson
Saunders and naughtone. With space at a premium, open storage
makes for a beautiful seating display and highlights Herman Miller's breadth of product with nearly
80 seating options on view.
Geiger
In contrast to the open plan of Herman Miller's two-story showroom,
Geiger presents private office solutions, including modular
casegoods, fully customizable workstations and architectural
furniture within the context of sleek glass partitions by Maars
Living Walls (Maars), the worldwide leader in interior wall
solutions and a subsidiary of Herman
Miller, Inc. The Geiger showroom delivers beauty and
function through modern craft – elevated and executed to the
highest standards with unparalleled precision, designed
specifically for commercial interiors and office environments.
Highlights include Geiger One, a new approach to casegoods informed
by years of experience creating customized solutions.
Maharam
Recognized for its rigorous and holistic
commitment to design, Maharam is a leading creator of textiles for
commercial and residential interiors. As with other Maharam
showrooms designed by architect Neil
Logan, the decidedly minimal interior features a central
textile display on a white partitioned table, highlighting an
evolving field of color, pattern and texture. A carefully arranged
rotation of large textile panels creates a monolithic backdrop of
tactile focus. Textiles from Maharam's 2021 wool initiative are
integrated into the showroom display, including Beck, a tailored
plain weave with an extensive palette, on the Chadwick Modular Sofa
in the guest seating area.
EDUCATING AND SHARING IDEAS
Adjacent to the Herman
Miller Showroom on the third floor, the Eames Pavilion features a
library, exhibition space and outdoor terrace, providing a platform
for education, expression and open engagement. With a rotating
exhibition schedule planned, the Pavilion opens this March with
Herman Miller: A Way of
Living, a book exhibition that chronicles the brand's
storied history and more than a century of pushing the boundaries
of design for home and office.
"In the stories we tell and the things we make, we're always
looking to connect the company's timeless ideas from the past to
offer industry-leading resources and thinking that shape the
present and future," said Amy
Auscherman, Head of Archives and Brand Heritage, Herman
Miller.
DESIGNING FOR WELL-BEING
As part of the company's real
estate portfolio and global footprint, Herman Miller Group at
Fulton Market has aligned the design of the showroom
experience to the concepts and features outlined in the WELL
Building Standard (WELL), the premier standard for buildings,
interior spaces and communities seeking to implement, validate and
measure features that support and advance human health and
wellness.
As the first furniture manufacturer to enroll and register its
real estate portfolio in the International WELL Building Institute™
(IWBI™) WELL Portfolio program, Herman
Miller leads the industry in the movement to promote health
and wellness in buildings and communities everywhere, leveraging
IWBI™ third-party research and a professional suite of tools to
help empower change.
"Whether making production safer, setting a new standard in
ergonomics, or finding ways to reduce our environmental impact, we
always ask how we can make things better, and together we can,"
said Straker. "This is reflected not only in the design elements of
the space itself, but also the operations and policies that guide
the experience within the space and demonstrates our commitment to
the overall health and well-being of our employees, clients and
guests."
Herman Miller Group at Fulton Market is located at 1100 W.
Fulton Market, Chicago, IL, 60607.
Contract showrooms are open by appointment only. Herman Miller, HAY and Design Within Reach are
open Monday–Saturday from 10am-7pm,
and 11am–5pm on Sunday.
For more information, please visit
https://store.hermanmiller.com/fulton-market-store?lang=en_US or
contact media_relations@hermanmiller.com.
About Herman
Miller
Herman Miller
is a globally recognized leader in design. Since its inception in
1905, the company's innovative, problem-solving designs and
furnishings have inspired the best in people wherever they live,
work, learn, heal, and play. In 2018, Herman Miller created Herman Miller Group, a
purposefully selected, complementary family of brands that includes
Colebrook Bosson Saunders, Design Within Reach, Geiger, HAY, Maars
Living Walls, Maharam, naughtone, and Nemschoff. Guided by a shared
purpose—design for the good of humankind—Herman Miller Group shapes
places that matter for customers while contributing to a more
equitable and sustainable future for all. For more information
visit www.hermanmiller.com/about-us.
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SOURCE Herman Miller, Inc.