Downtown Desert Fashion Plaza

For more than a decade, a largely vacant, dated shopping center blighted the core of Downtown Palm Springs. The key to galvanizing much-needed change: breaking a contentious logjam between the project developer and City leadership—and creating a redevelopment master plan for Desert Fashion Plaza that everyone could support.

During an intensive, six-week collaboration, MIG led a series of community-based design workshops; facilitated conversations among City officials, staff, and developers; navigated differing perspectives; and found common ground to re-invigorate the aging shopping center.

The recipe for creating a well-supported, visionary yet implementable design began with cultivating a thorough understanding of the property’s constraints and opportunities, including the physical environment, economic factors, unique sense of character, and the important social and cultural role that Desert Fashion Plaza played in the history of Palm Springs. Drawing on this foundation along with Palm Spring’s eclectic architectural vernacular, walkable downtown environment, and desert climate—MIG created a mixed-use design scenario and site program that was amenable to the City and feasible for the developer while easing community concerns. Remarkably, with well-liked, inspiring direction in place, the City and developer agreed to break ground on the redevelopment project within 18 months.

Today, Desert Fashion Plaza is a beautiful, walkable, and active mixed-use retail core that contributes to Palm Spring’s thriving Downtown. MIG’s skill in navigating complex dynamics and collaborative breakthroughs resulted in recommendations and a visionary master plan that sparked this exciting renaissance in the heart of Palm Springs.