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The New York Post
Frazzled residents of an Upper East Side luxury condo say the Equinox gym that shares their building is driving them nuts, claiming the sounds of people working out have been plaguing homeowners for nearly a year and a half, according to a new lawsuit.
Board members of Barbizon/63 Condominium say the East 63rd S treet gym has routinely ignored residents' complaints that they can hear exercisers blasting music or "dropping or throwing weights" as high up as the fifth floor, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court complaint.
"It's like living above a dance club," griped a woman who refused to give her name but said she lived on one of the lower floors.
"You would think an old building like this would have thicker walls and floors, but that's not the case. So what ends up happening is you hear this nonstop stream of loud music and thump, thump, thumping of the bass."
The woman said she could even distinguish the dropping of a weight from the "whirring" of cardio machines - though the "white noise" of the machines had become less troublesome over time.
"Often, you'll hear a much louder thumping and you know someone has just dropped a 300-pound set of dumbbells on the floor," she said.
Building representatives claim they first approached the gym's staff in November 2015 and asked that they either curb the noise or reinforce the unit, which the court papers say the gym "initially" agreed to do.
However, nothing changed, and residents could still hear "members and trainers regularly and continuously bounce heavy medicine balls on the floors and walls of the gym," creating racket that reached 63 decibels - the auditory equivalent of a vacuum cleaner - four floors up.
Units sell for as much as $15 million in the 23-floor prewar building. The suit claims the branch is in violation of both the building by-laws and New York City Noise Code.
The condo off Lexington Avenue, once the legendary Barbizon Hotel for Women, is asking a judge to order the gym to quiet down or cough up $100,000.
An Equinox spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.
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