David Barton returns to Chelsea with U gym

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From Lois Weiss

June 7, 2023 | 11:53am

Gym guru David Barton is back in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood with a reinvention of the same space his gym occupied a decade ago.

I love this place and needed a gym to work out at, Barton told The Post. This is my home and this space was my baby.

Barton badly needed a local gym where he could pump iron as Page Six exclusively reported last month that he and his wife, Susanne Bartsch, were kicked out of a Crunch facility earlier this year when they learned of his new project.

The 35,000-square-foot project is known as Gym U as in University and opened with a packed VIP party on May 31st and the public on June 2nd. It is located at 215 W. 23rd St.

Barton got into the fitness world after college when he became a personal trainer and then saved my money.

A nightlife dweller himself, the detail-oriented Barton learned from that milieu of club-like hospitality how to make his clients feel at home in a gym.

I wanted to make hip people go to the gym and have a place where people who went to clubs would feel comfortable, she said, so they could look better naked.

As such, Barton used exceptional music, lighting and design details to translate that sultry clubbing experience into fitness.

I came from clubs and learned from clubs, he said.

Barton lived across the road at the Chelsea Hotel and had already established other fitness venues when he was approached in 2003 by developer Mitchell Marks to create the gym on the lower levels of this beautiful building.

All of the Bartons city venues have attracted a cross-section of New Yorkers from club kids and designers, like Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein, to other A-listers like Gwen Stefani, Anna Wintour and Anderson Cooper.

But a decade later, in 2013, when Barton left his company, disagreements between the remaining partners drove the business into bankruptcy and the place was leased to another fitness chain.

As the lease was about to expire, Marks contacted Barton again and the two struck a new deal, with no intermediaries. Since Marks is also a partner on the location, Barton says the terms are complicated, but they certainly cost a lot more than they did in 2003, when rent was just $20 a foot and construction nearly $4 million.

But for Gym U, Barton has upped both the interior design and the facility’s health, wellness and fitness game with new technologies and recovery schemes.

I’ve completely changed the look since I last had it. Before drawing what was architecturally significant, she said. Now I have accentuated the volumes and space.

He added, I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

A bright red chandelier hangs above the entry stairway, while one of the main interior stairways is painted in the vibrant International Klein Blue shade.

There is also a public bar, the Mush Room, developed in collaboration with Employees Only’s Billy Gilroy with a menu based on the metabolic benefits of mushrooms which will include cocktails, health foods, smoothies and coffees. But until they’re legal, no psychedelics.

Other design collaborators include renowned architects Charles Renfro and Stephen Alton, carpenter Rose Wood and award-winning lighting design firm Focus Lighting.

The back wall of the first floor is dominated by several 11-foot-tall fans, with lights that will change with the music played by an in-house DJ whose blue-lit booth sits on the side of the grand atrium overlooking the workout areas.

I wanted to build a wall of giant, floor-to-ceiling fans and he’s a brilliant carpenter and artist, said Barton of Peter Brescia.

The decor is dark club-like with rows of black fitness machines accented by their shiny chrome bars and amber-lit structural columns. You can capture your reflection in large mirrors placed here and there or a whole wall of copper that contributes a warm, reflective glow to the atmosphere.

There are also side rooms where members can be immersed in an ozone capsule, take part in IV push therapy, or be detoxified and given personal training.

We have an incredible selection of strengthening treatments, classes, and recovery with Fuel Stop’s Nila J. said of the nutritionist and lifestyle coach, whose clients include Iman.

Barton says a partnership with the Precision Health Alliance and its AI methodology will also help clients make lifestyle changes based on their genetics, hormones, developmental pathways, and current state of health and stress. They are at the forefront of this and are promoting understanding of this approach to health, Barton said.

Gym U also incorporates the Newfits Neubie electric muscle stimulation machine which is said to improve the health and well-being of people suffering from muscle weakness, chronic pain or other musculoskeletal conditions.

The device should add strength, muscle and bone density every benefit that comes from exercise but in less time. Everyone who does is hooked, Barton said. I have had injuries and pain from working for a long time and now I have no pain and it has completely relieved it.

However, Barton hurt his knee and is using a flower cane this week to make sure every vibe is perfect at the new Gym U. At 5-foot-5, he cuts a unique figure with his long, but now graying, hair. cascading upward from a veil, while upper-body muscles and veins burst out of a ripped Bagabones Contortion Society T-shirt and cut-off denim shorts.

During the pandemic, Barton was in what he called retirement mode, but collaborated from home and designed the Anvil Fitness Club in Moscow.

I can’t go now, she said sadly. The war thing got in the way.