The Pyramid Building

The Pyramid at Miramar has one of the most distinctive origin stories in San Diego commercial real estate. Developed by Fargo Industries and completed in 1992 as part of the larger Miramar Metroplex, the six-story building was designed by San Diego architect N. Charles Slert, whose unusual design drew immediate critical attention upon opening. The Los Angeles Times architecture critic Dirk Sutro reviewed it when it first debuted, hailing the design as Slert's "most distinctive office design yet." 

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The pyramid structure itself is an engineering feat in its own right. Designed, manufactured and installed by DSI Spaceframes, the 150-foot-high white steel pyramid rises above the six-story reflective glass office building and can be seen from miles away. The pyramid's repeated triangle design could only be created by space frame construction — a stark contrast to the building's curved walls. The form is reminiscent of the mountains in the distance, while the white steel trusses deliberately echo the hangars at nearby Miramar Naval Air Station. 

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Slert designed the building with flexible floor plans to accommodate retail businesses — a forward-thinking move that also made it adaptable to future office uses. Yet despite the critical fanfare, the building spent much of its first two decades anchored by home-furnishing tenants on the ground floor, somewhat underselling its potential in a submarket better known for industrial warehouses than Class A office.

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The building's profile got an unexpected cultural boost early in its life: in the 1993 film Demolition Man starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, characters emerge from the San Diego Innovation Center and drive past the pyramid — cementing its status as a futuristic San Diego landmark before the building had even found its footing commercially.

The modern chapter began in 2014, when Alliance Diversified Holdings LLC acquired the property with plans to rename it the San Diego Innovation Center and reposition it as a creative office and technology center.  Ted Eldredge, president of Alliance Diversified, said at the time: "This building was actually a bit before its time. We will now be able to bring this dynamic property to its full potential." The ground floor was transformed — the furniture showrooms replaced with a café, fitness center, and conference amenities — giving the building the campus-style tenant experience it was always designed to deliver.

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Today, over three decades after it first reshaped the Miramar Road skyline, The Pyramid remains the only building of its kind in San Diego — an architectural landmark that no buyer could replicate, on a site no developer could reproduce.