Big-Bjarke Ingels Group Creates a Vibrant Residential Building in Harlem

2021 Best of Year winner for Multiunit Housing

It doesn’t look quite like its neighbors. A T-shape footprint allows the ground-up residential building to connect Harlem’s bustling 125th Street and the much quieter 126th with a curved facade of blackened stainless-steel panels that leans gently back as it rises. The maneuver complies with Manhattan’s zoning envelope while providing the street below with more direct sunlight—and the project its whimsical name: The Smile. At the entry, BIG designed a tile mosaic in vibrant reds, blues, greens, and yellows—the colors chosen to reflect the neighborhood’s Caribbean history.

In addition to 233 units, 70 of which are designated affordable housing, the project includes game and billiard rooms, a coworking area, and a dining room. Those can be found in the fifth-floor amenity space, where a wall of Russian birch slats and polished concrete flooring reflect the firm’s Nordic sensibilities, while throughout, raw materials—an exposed concrete structure, steel trusses—yield an industrial vibe. But white polyurethane flooring and Caesarstone countertops in the rental units change the mode to clean and bright. And thanks to a checkerboard panel system on the facade, each apartment has floor-to-ceiling windows, some with views stretching to Central Park. That gives residents something to smile about.

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group: Bjarke ingels; Thomas Christoffersen; Beat Schenk; Kai-Uwe Bergmann; Michelle Stromsta; Jennifer Ng; Lucio Santos; Elena Bresciani; Everald Colas; Francesca Portesine; Adrien Mans; Agne Rapkeviciute; Annette Miller; Ava Nourbaran; Ben Caldwell; Benjamin Dinapoli; Daniele Pronesti; Deborah Campbell; Douglass Alligood; Eva Maria Mikkelsen; Gabriel Hernandez Solano; Iannis Kandyliaris; Jan Leenknegt; Jennifer Phan; Jennifer Wood; Jeremy Babel; Jialin Yuan; John Kim; Jose Jimenez; Julie Kaufman; Julien Beauchamp-Roy; Kurt Nieminen; Lina Bondarenko; Mark Rakhmanov; Meli Harvey; Margaret Tyrpa; Quentin Stanton; Rita Sio; Sarah Habib; Shu Zhao; Taylor Fulton; Terrence Chew; Terry Lallak; Valentina Mele; Wells Barber; Wojciech Swarowski; Yaziel Juarbe; Yoanna Shivarova