Carter's Review

This handsome and dramatic mid-block building at 148 East 126th Street in East Harlem was built in 2020 and is known as The Smile. The 11-story building, which is also known as 149 East 125th Street and 149 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, was erected by the Blumenfeld Development Group. It has 223 rental apartments, of which 20 percent are "affordable."

BIG, of which Bjarke Ingels is the head, is the architect. Its other buildings in the city include the rakish pyramid Via 57 on West 57th Street and the XI, a twisted, two-tower apartment complex in Chelsea.

This building, which is also known as Gotham East 126th Residential, is between Lexington and Third avenues. It is clad in a blackened stainless steel panel façade that Mr. Ingels has said was inspired by an elephant’s skin.

The building's site was formerly a parking lot and a two-story commercial building built by the developer in 2002.

Bottom Line

A stunning, concave, mid-block, checkerboard façade, mid-rise apartment building in Harlem designed by Bjarke Ingels.

Description

The building has a very dramatic façade on 126th Street that rises slightly to the south in a long concave arc along in its long street frontage.

On 125th Street, it has a long, three-story base above which the T-shaped building rises with its narrow "leg," clad in the zig-zag, "checkerboard" gray façade like the 126th Street main façade.

At the groundbreaking event for the building, Ingels said the interiors of the building were inspired by his recent travels, bringing in a "cacophony of Caribbean colors” to the entranceway, elevator lobby, and mailbox area.

According to an article by Jason Sayer at archpaper.com, Mr. Ingels said at the ceremony that "Here we are in the heart of a very lively and transforming neighborhood," adding that "we had to think differently."  "We came up with this idea of gently draping the façade between the two neighbors, leaning back to allow sunlight and air to reach the street and also to fulfill the setback requirements." The article also noted that originally the design called for a façade of cor-ten, "which was the idea of trying to match the red brick with a material that wasn't brick," adding that "we wanted something that could express the three-dimensionality of a drape, to have a very soft façade framed by the two buildings either side."

The building has a very spacious and impressive lobby with a floor sprinkled slightly with narrow bands of bright color.

Amenities

The building has a concierge, a roof deck, a fitness center, a pool, a lounge, workspaces, a virtual reality room, a golf simulator, a bar, a yoga room and on-site parking.