Alan Faena built his name on the idea that a hotel should feel like walking into someone's very specific dream. In West Chelsea, at 500 West 18th Street, the dream is gold, red, and unapologetically loud.
The building belongs to Bjarke Ingels Group. The twisting glass tower at One High Line has been a talking point on 18th Street since it topped out. Inside, Faena New York occupies 120 rooms across the lower floors, and the interiors bear almost no resemblance to the architectural envelope. Where BIG gave the exterior geometric discipline, Peter Mikic and the Faena Design Team filled the interior with brass, velvet and leopard print. The contrast is the point.
You enter through the Cathedral Lobby. The name is earned. Diego Gravinese, the Argentine painter, covered the soaring walls with a site-specific mural titled The Sefirotic Journey. The figures are larger than life, layered in deep reds and golds, moving upward through something that reads as both spiritual and theatrical. It sets the tone for everything that follows.
The Cathedral Lobby, Faena New York, 500 West 18th Street
Red and gold
The rooms are bathed in colour. Floor-to-ceiling windows pull in High Line views and, from the higher floors, clear sightlines to the Empire State Building. Velvet upholstery in deep crimson. Brass fixtures that catch the afternoon light. Animal-print accents appear on cushions, on the headboard fabric, on the robes. The palette is consistent and fearless: red, gold, black.
There is nothing neutral here. The minibar is hidden behind a lacquered cabinet. The bathroom fixtures are brass. Even the hangers feel considered. For anyone who has spent too many nights in hotels that prize inoffensiveness, the commitment is a relief.
Where BIG gave the exterior geometric discipline, Peter Mikic filled the interior with brass, velvet and leopard print. The contrast is the point.
Léa FontaineLa Boca
The restaurant takes its name from the Buenos Aires neighbourhood where colour runs up every wall. La Boca Las Monas occupies the ground floor, open to the street in a way that most Chelsea restaurants try for and few achieve. The cooking is Argentine with a New York appetite: grilled meats, simple pastas, portions that acknowledge people are actually hungry.
The Living Room sits adjacent, functioning as cocktail bar and late-night music venue. Mid-century brass bar stools line a towering central bar. Behind it, a wall-to-wall mural of horses in tones that echo the lobby. The room fills on Friday nights with a mix of guests and downtown regulars. A DJ plays until late. The drink to order is the Faena Negroni, served in a heavy glass with a single orange peel.
Spring arrivals
The hotel opened its rooms last September. This spring, it completes itself. The Faena Theater, gilded and intimate, takes its cues from Old Hollywood. Artwork by Andrés Reisinger lines the interior. The programming leans toward cabaret, the kind of small-scale performance that Miami Beach Faena made famous a decade ago. Opening night is expected before May.
Below the theater, Tierra Santa Healing House opens across twelve thousand square feet. Temperature therapy pools, a hammam, plunge pools, treatment rooms offering South American healing rituals. The spa at Faena Miami Beach became a destination in its own right. The New York version is larger, more ambitious, designed for a city where the need for decompression is more acute.
Together, the theater and the healing house complete the Faena formula: art, indulgence, a sense that the hotel contains a world you do not need to leave.
The verdict
New York has dozens of excellent hotels. Most of them are careful. Faena is not careful. It is convinced, from the lobby mural to the leopard-print robes, that more can be more. In a city that gravitates toward clean lines and quiet luxury, the commitment to maximalism feels like a statement of principle.
The location helps. West Chelsea, the High Line at your feet, the galleries of 22nd Street a short walk north. During New York Fashion Week, the Meatpacking District venues are five minutes south. The neighbourhood has the density of culture that Faena needs around it to make sense.
Stay for the theater opening. Book a hammam session at Tierra Santa. Order the Negroni. Leave your good taste at the door, and let the gold do the talking.
The Splendid Edit reports on Faena New York as it completes its spring 2026 openings. Standard room rates start from approximately $1,200 per night. Book through faena.com/new-york.
Photography courtesy of Faena New York — via Wallpaper*