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Here's your first look at what Bjarke Ingels has planned for Harlem

Here's your first look at what Bjarke Ingels has planned for Harlem

Since setting up shop in New York, the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has quickly become one of the most visible architecture firms in the city. It all started with the tetrahedron-shaped residential “courtscraper,” first called W57 and now dubbed Via, that is now nearing completion on 57th Street. And then there is BIG’s viewing platform at Brooklyn Bridge Park that has been likened to a Tostito. (That nickname has stuck, but the project’s funding has not.)

Across the East River from the park, over on the Lower East Side, BIG is also in the planning stages for the Dryline, a flood protection system of landscaped berms and parkland that was awarded $335 million in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild By Design competition. And then of course there is the recently-unveiled Two World Trade Center that may or may not be a staircase for King Kong. As these projects have been unveiled one after the other, anticipation has been building over BIG’s planned residential building in Harlem.

Now, thanks to some early renderings obtained by NY YIMBY we have a sense of New York City’s next BIG thing. The residential building on 126th street would make a serious statement with an undulating, concave facade of glass and what appears to be concrete or metal panels. (The design is actually quite similar to BIG’s 1200 Intrepid at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard.)

The T-shaped structure would cantilever over Gotham Plaza, a retail building on 125th street that is owned by Blumenfeld which is developing the BIG project with Extell. YIMBY reported that the building contains 233 apartments, most of which are studios and one-bedrooms. (Twenty percent of the building—47 units—will be priced below market-rate.) As the site also noted, the building’s design appears to remain in flux as its facade has been rendered in both black and red.


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