BIG Designs Twisting Towers In New York

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ firm BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group has unveiled new images of a pair of twisting towers that are currently rising in New York’s High Line. Located at 76 11th Avenue between 17th Street and 18th Street, the new towers are comprised of a twisted form sitting on a massive but semi-transparent base, which are gently designed not to block each other’s views along the High Line.

Named The XI, the towers – also literally known as The Eleventh, are currently under construction on site and their exoskeleton already took shape on project site. The XI is planned to complete in 2019.

Developed by HFZ Capital Group, the tower on the West side will have 36 floors and reach approximately 400 feet (121,9 meters), will include 149 condos and its interiors will designed by the New York firm Gabellini Sheppard, while the East tower will reach 26 floors and about 300 feet (91 meters). The East tower will also contain a Six Senses hotel on the lower floors and will contain 87 condos from the 11th floor up, which will be designed by the Paris firm Gilles & Boissier.

Conceived as “a micro-neighbourhood”, the building’s central courtyard will be filled with plantings, designed by the Swiss landscape architect Enzo Enea. On the street level of the building, several pavilions, restaurants and retail stores, linked to a park on the eastern edge of the site designed by Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, are developed to attract visitors throughout this popular walkway.

The pair of twisting asymmetrical bronze and travertine towers is connected by a skybridge, allowing new visitors to pass underneath. The building will be clad by travertine materials and as the towers rotate around its own base, the appearance of the material will change and be shadowed throughout floor-to-ceiling glazing.

“Our whole idea is to create a resort environment in an urban setting,