[2] Current tenants include the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society and the Southern California Association of Camera Clubs.

The art center was originally designed and constructed by architect Richard Requa for the second year of the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935.

[3] Although the center was intricately designed to provide simple Spanish architecture, it was not created with longevity in mind, likely to be demolished after the exhibition.

The buildings were left in poor condition by the army after the war ended, but the artists moved back into their spaces in 1947.

[4][5] During the 1980s, in an attempt to attract more guests to the art center, artists banded together to paint the many tiles laid in the ground, which are believed to be made of the ruins of demolished buildings in the 1930s.