The Pyramids are three 11-story, pyramid-shaped office buildings that are part of a commercial development in College Park, Indianapolis,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, United States. The structures occupy of land situated next to a lake. They were constructed between 1967 and 1972 by the College Life Insurance Company (now part of Americo Life) using a design by architect

Kevin Roche Eamonn Kevin Roche (June 14, 1922 – March 1, 2019) was an Irish-born American Pritzker Prize-winning architect. He was responsible for the design/master planning for over 200 built projects in both the U.S. and abroad. These projects in ...

. They are noted for the abstract quality of the opacity of the concrete walls that face the nearby highway and the reflectivity of the glass curtain walls that face the landscaped grounds.

History

In the 1960s, the College Life Insurance Company was rapidly expanding and sought to accommodate its growing staff while providing for anticipated expansion. It decided on a plan by Kevin Roche consisting of nine identical office towers each eleven stories tall and each containing . This would permit it to build towers as it needed additional office space without leaving buildings idle or underused. Only the initial three towers were constructed and take the form of pyramids. In the late 1990s the site was re-landscaped and further construction of towers appears unlikely. In 2004, Sterling American Property purchased the office center for US$10 million. Since they were originally constructed, the College Life Insurance Company has left the buildings. Purchased in 2022, the property is owned by

Speedway, Indiana Speedway is a town in Wayne Township, Marion County, Indiana, United States. The population was 11,812 at the 2010 U.S. Census. Speedway, which is an enclave of Indianapolis, is the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. History Speedway was ...

-based KennMar LLC, which rents space to various businesses in the Indianapolis area. They are also noted as being among Roche's best works and contributed to his being awarded the Pritzker Prize. In 2021, a six-person panel of

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

(AIA) Indianapolis members identified The Pyramids among the ten most "architecturally significant" buildings completed in the city since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Structure

Each tower is made up of two walls of reinforced concrete from which project the unobstructed office floors. Those concrete walls provide the support for the floors as well as serving as L-shaped service cores. The other two walls are covered in blue exterior glass and each building is connected to the others via underground and above-ground passages. Each pyramid has three cable passenger elevators. The buildings have been described as "abstract" and "sculptural" based on their use of opaque concrete walls facing the nearby highway and reflective blue glass facing the interior lake of the complex.

References

External links

The official site of The PyramidsThe Pyramids at Skyscraper PageThe Pyramids at EmporisKennMar - owner and manager of The Pyramids
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyramids, The (Indianapolis) Skyscraper office buildings in Indianapolis Office buildings completed in 1972 Roche-Dinkeloo buildings Pyramids in the United States Futurist architecture 1972 establishments in Indiana