At Design42, we have a team dedicated to developing designs for the health and fitness industry. We pride ourselves on the number of successful health and fitness clubs we’ve designed that are still in operation and generating a great customer base in their respective areas.

Recently, we’ve been expanding our reach and in doing so became acquainted with some of the owners/trainers of CrossFit NYC: The Black Box. This club has been getting a lot of media coverage lately and their workouts of the day (WOD) has been spreading across the web.

“CrossFit NYC is the largest CrossFit gym in the world, the 16th oldest of now more than 7,000 CrossFit affiliates, and one of Men’s Fitness’ 10 Best CrossFit Gyms in America.” They are known for their intense routines and weight training exercises. Our challenge was to develop a system for the expansion into a third floor space to meet their training requirements while simultaneously satisfying the building owner and Board of Standards and Appeals stringent sound transmission and impact isolation goals.

As a solution, we developed a lightweight concrete floor to be installed over the existing “pre-war” style floor construction and on top of that, is a 24mm acoustical underlayment and 12mm finish rubber flooring. Additionally, in key “weight-drop” zones our client chose to use a built up rubber platform to provide additional sound isolation.

Our initial reports, have exceeded our expectations however formal sound testing has not yet been completed to determine the calculated improvement. There are several factors why this system worked best at this location and may not be reproducible in other facilities. Design42 and it’s staff makes no express warranties or guarantees regarding the performance of this system, only that it make a perceivable audible difference when compared to the existing conditions.