One High Line

One High Line almost didn’t get finished. The twisting travertine towers in West Chelsea passed through investor lawsuits and a foreclosure before Witkoff and Access Industries took over the stalled project, formerly known as The XI, and carried it across the line in 2024. The result is one of the more sculptural residential additions to the Manhattan skyline in years.

Project Scope

Bjarke Ingels Group designed the development as two travertine-clad towers, a 36-story west building and a 26-story east building, joined by a glass-enclosed double-height bridge lounge. Together they hold 236 condominium units on a full block at 500 West 18th Street, beside the elevated High Line park. Interiors split between two firms: Gabellini Sheppard handled the west tower, Paris-based Gilles & Boissier the east.

The defining design move solves a sightline problem. The two towers angle away from each other at their base so they don’t wall off views from the High Line to the Hudson River, then twist as they rise, which gives the pair their dancing silhouette. The travertine cladding is a deliberate nod to mid-century Manhattan, echoing the white-stone-and-dark-window contrast of buildings like the W.R. Grace Building.

Why It Matters

The project is a lesson in how distressed megaprojects get revived. A high-profile luxury tower going into foreclosure mid-construction is exactly the kind of stall that can leave a half-built shell on a prime block for years. Witkoff and Access Industries restructuring the deal and finishing the work shows that even a project buried in litigation can be completed when new ownership brings capital and a plan.

Architecturally, it adds to the run of expressive residential towers that have redrawn the New York skyline alongside supertalls like Central Park Tower. One High Line takes a different path than the pencil-thin record-chasers, trading height for a sculpted, block-spanning form tied directly to the park it sits beside, and it gives Chelsea a landmark where a construction-site fence stood not long ago.

Project Team & Details