Dan Mazzarini Creates a Community Vibe in Flywheel Sports Brooklyn
Dan Mazzarini spent more than seven years at Polo Ralph Lauren, designing stores for the fashion empire, before he started his own firm, BHDM Design, in 2012. (Founding partner and fellow RL veteran Brian Humphrey recently stepped down but remains a creative consultant.) Given his background, commercial clients like Axiom Global and Tangram Tower Sponsor often entrust BHDM with projects involving brand development. Such was the case with Flywheel Sports, the cycling gym that launched in Manhattan in 2010 and now has 42 studios in cities around the U.S. The firm sought out Mazzarini to help with a 3,400-square-foot ground-floor space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that would serve as a design testing ground for Flywheel studios going forward.
Working with its in-house designers and real estate team, Mazzarini gave the reception area a “community vibe,” he says. Tucking a self-service check-in counter at the front of the space left room for bleacher seating—a place to hang out while waiting for a friend—and a bar-height oak table with pull-up stools. From this light, bright space, gymgoers proceed to the gray-on-gray cycling shoe pickup area and, from there, to the all-black semicircular “stadium” where spin classes are held. The shower room combines a black ceiling and matte-white wall tiles with contrasting gray grout for a fashionably graphic effect. But no need to take our word for it. A Yelp reviewer called the showers “the nicest ones I’ve ever used at a sports facility.”
Watch a video interview with Dan Mazzarini:
