california state polytechnic, pomona 2018-2023 selected works
Ian Gabriel Galang
Education California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Work Experience
Awards Publications
CPP Architecture Interim Exhibition
"On the Grid College of Environmental Design s Official E-Newsletter
Skills Programs
a creative collaborative nestled in los angeles’ arts district
This studio represents the culmination of a year-long research project centered on Los Angeles, where we delved into the city’s challenges with urban sprawl and identified underutilized areas. Our investigation included a thorough study of the LA River Master Plan, providing insights into how these overlooked areas might develop over the coming decades. Our goal is to contribute to the creation of more vibrant, diverse, and people-oriented communities through our projects.
The studio provided an opportunity to explore the concept of creative spaces and their potential to engage with their surroundings in the current state and in the future. With Los Angeles housing millions of individuals in various creative fields, the project aimed to tailor a space designed for the non-traditional, 9-to-5 workers. This idea served as the foundation for my project, focusing on creating an environment where these individuals can gather, collaborate, and work effectively.
I studied a diverse group of creative individuals, including ceramists, painters, photographers, videographers, and social media content creators, to gain insights into their work environments, struggles, and areas needing improvement. They all faced similar challenges: lack of space for their work, creative burnout due to the lack of separation between work and home, and the lack of a social aspect.
This project hopes to serves as a hub for individuals seeking a space as flexible and dynamic as their work all while aiding in transforming additional areas of the Arts District.
Third Spaces is situated on a small 16,000 sf lot currently home of an industrial warehouse. The site was chosen for it’s proximity to the Santa Monica Freeway, the LA River, recently completed development projects, and future projects slated to start within the next decade. Part of the LA River Master Plan envisioned portions of the river being transformed to include public walkways and greenbelts-this would allow for multi modes of transportation to reach the site in the future.
The site is located just 2 miles from several notable redevelopment projects, including ROW DTLA, which has transformed vacant warehouses into a fashionable shopping district, and the area surrounding the Hauser & Wirth Galleries, home to SCI-Arc and various boutique restaurants and shops. Looking ahead, the old Sears Tower directly across the river from the site will be adapted into a mixed-use complex with housing and commericail spaces. Additionally, the anticipated collaboration between Studio One Eleven and David Adjaye is set to break ground to create 7-acres of housing, retail, and offices.
With the project maintaining a simple footprint, I wanted to create a sense of variety of heights and spaces within. There are multiple atriums that disrupt the upper floorplates and with each starting and ending at different floors.
In addition to the atriums breaking up the floor plates, the remaining floor space on each level is either sunken or raised to introduce variety and create distinct zones within the space.
The ground floor acts a solid plinth to which the mass above seem to float above. The ground floor houses the entrance and one of the communal dining areas. The footprint of the building is smaller than its predecessor in order to create a buffer from the street and to create a more pedestrian friendly entry
In this section, you can see the sole atrium that extends through the entire building. This atrium, along with the others, houses treehouselike structures that suspend habitable working platforms in the air. These platforms are connected by a variety of staircases—straight, spiral, and curved. The intention behind this circuitous navigation is to encourage users to slow down and fully explore the spaces as they move through the building. This design fosters opportunities for people to gather and interact casually on the platforms.
In this sectional drawing, a greater number of the atriums are shown piercing through the floors at different levels. The remaining floors are sunken and shifted, creating varied spatial levels throughout.
The drawing highlights the diverse types of workspaces within the project, tailored to the needs of its inhabitants.
It depicts areas designed for interaction and visibility, as well as spaces that offer complete seclusion from the surrounding activity.
NO. 1 INSTANCES: 3 ORIENTATION VARIES/MIRRORS
NO. 2 INSTANCES: 1
NO. 3 INSTANCES: 6 LENGTH VARIES
NO. 4 INSTANCES: 5 ORIENTATION VARIES/MIRRORS LENGTH VARIES
a multigenerational housing project
For this studio, we focused on experimenting with different housing model designs that strayed away from the current nuclear family ideal of a single family home. The studio researched different housing situations to better consider and understand the needs of the users for the housing models being proposed on various sites in Los Angeles. Choosing a housing situation personal to me, I decided to propose a multigenerational housing project and based it on what would have made my experiences living with extended family members more comfortable. Another added challenge for us to design around was to envision how a different set of users would use the space at a separate moment in time. I chose to design around the idea that the current users would be able to still comfortably live within the project even after they’ve grown and introduced new possible partners to the space. This resulted in the idea of creating a variety of spaces to allow the inhabitants to be able to come together as a family or retreat to privacy when desired.
The site I selected is in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The initial set of users for this project are two sets of grandparents, the main couple, and their young children with it eventually transitioning to the grown children taking over the rest of the house with the possible future partners and their now aging parents.
The site I selected is located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. It has a slight slope leading up to Dexter St. and has the unique quality of being a through lot with access on either end. The majority of residents in this area are renters consisting of young families and individuals in their early 30’s. This model of housing would allow individuals the ability to afford a property in the area by them gathering their resources together to purchase together.
The project can be separated by their functions and their inhabitants.
In the “first set of users” diagram, it depicts the separation of the two sets of grandparents, parents, and children and their proximity to each other and the shared communal spaces.
This diagram displays the “second set of users” with the children growing up in taking over portions of the house with their partners. The now aging parents taking over one of the grandparent suites. The former children’s rooms have been re-purposed to include communal functions.
The house can be entered on either Dexter St. or the main Ave 50 entrance. Both take you to entrance courtyards that spill into the large main living space of the house, and from there, the central corridor leads you to the more private quarters of the inhabitants and the second floor communal spaces.
There are a variety of indoor and outdoor lounges and sitting areas for the inhabitants to be able to come together as a family and also allow for more privacy when needed. The ability to retreat to different spaces really is a key feature for both the adults and the children as they grow older; they will be able to have a sense of privacy and a place to call their own within the home.
There are three main suites within the house: two suites on opposite ends of the on the ground floor for the grandparents and the third on the second floor for the parents. Each suite has the feel of a studio apartment with their own sitting areas, bedroom areas, and bathrooms. The children’s rooms are noticeably smaller as they would be re-purposed into either guest bedroom or fitness room as the children mature into adults
Walls were thickened to frame in on the garden views and direct light into the spaces a certain way. The walls allowed for program to be embedded within them and housed: bookshelves, seating, bathtubs, desks, and other items.
Second Floor Plan
hotel adaptive reuse
We were given a site in Los Angeles along Hollywood Boulevard and Cosmo Street where two historic buildings already existed and converted them into a sixty-five room boutique hotel and destination attraction. I chose to keep the historic buildings rather than obliterating them and began to focus on how to incorporate them into my designs.
I decided to use the gable shape as a recurring theme since the shape is associated with the house and a hotel is often called a “home away from home” The gable shape was restrained to the proportions of the grid created by the facade study where they either protruded from or cut into the building. I wanted there to be a clear difference between the old and new by using different colors, patterns, scales, and shapes. The existing ornate buildings were rendered in a charcoal gray with their window systems using the traditional grid mullion system often associated with older buildings and the additions made were rendered in white to stand out from A play of scale was used with the large addition that rests on top of the old to further emphasize the difference of what is new and existing. The arch shapes that cut into all of the additions was a way to incorporate the existing shapes already found on the buildings and helped give a unified appearance.
a community center in the heart of downtown los angeles
For this studio, the project focused on the redevelopment of Pershing Square in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. The current park is an underutilized space with very little to offer to residents and visitors. In hopes to activate the area, the redevelopment includes a redesign of the existing landscape and the addition of a community center complex that houses a library, classrooms, a sports hall, an indoor pool, outdoor athletic courts, and an events space.
The first portion of the redesign focused heavily on the landscape to create various new entrances to facilitate better flow and movement through the site. The network of pathways separated and defined the three main sections of the park: athletics, educational, and events. I named the project PLAY at Pershing Square because of the different types of play that happen within each sector: play sports, play area, and play music, etc. The type of tertiary pathways within each sector change depending on the program. In both the athletics and events sections, the tertiary pathways are very straight and direct and are meant to move people from one place to another quickly. Within the educational section, the paths are more meandering and intersect with others to create islands of play areas and gardens.
After deciding the ciruclation and organization of the site, the design of the building complex continued to revolve those ideas. The bar-like building follows the main walkway and is further broken into three portions by the secondary paths. I chose to design the complex as a low-lying structure that slowly rises from the ground to contrast its towering neighors. The buildings are then connected by a large sloping living roof that is also accessible from the ground; it acts as the fourth type of space that exists within the park and is free from any designated program.
Ian Gabriel Galang 2023 - 2024 Portfolio
itgalang99@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/ian-galang