The DJ console, a stage, a bistro, paintings on the walls: we are not in a disco, but in the new John Reed gym inaugurated today in the city centre. As is well known, Rsg Group, the first fitness company in the world, has taken over and redeveloped, after two years of work, the old and disused Banco di Napoli headquarters between Corso Italia and via Donota, transforming it into one of the two John Reed fitness centers in Italy.
The four-storey building, built during the Fascist period, has been renovated without distorting its original style and maintaining part of the furnishings: the vault, with annexed coffers, becomes the underground weight room and the stone counters at the entrance are transformed into the bistro, the reception and the console area for the DJ. The atrium features a stage and a room where events can be held, with cardio machines on either side. The first floor, with the restored original floors, houses the training room and the basic area, while the second floor houses the changing rooms and a sauna. A space of 2 thousand square meters, with 200 machines and a capacity of 200 people.
John Reed, with McFit and Gold’s Gym, is one of the three RSG Group brands, which has 42 locations in Italy: 39 McFit, two John Reeds, and one Gold’s Gym. The brand launches a fitness concept that incorporates art, design and music, in fact, twice a week, workouts will be accompanied by a live DJ set in the background and once a month there will be a ‘Boost Club’, a training session intensive with music, where each subscriber can bring a non-subscriber friend as a guest.
Thus stated the CEO of Rsg Italia Vito Scavo: “Not just a gym but a meeting place for young people and people who want to keep fit. Trieste, for us and for Italy, is a very important city, with a very high quality of life. We have not chosen a simple low cost gym, some of our brands are cheap but John Reed, for which we have chosen Trieste, is part of our premium”. Scavo also wanted to remember his partner, the tycoon Rainer Schaller, who lost his life together with his family in a tragic plane crash a month ago: “he was my best friend, he was the mind that created this vision, this it’s his last work, that’s why it’s important for me to be here”.
Many city and local authorities were present, including the president Massimiliano Fedriga, the mayor Roberto Dipiazza and the regional councilor for the environment Fabio Scoccimarro. Fedriga spoke of “an important investment that enhances Trieste’s architectural heritage” and of the importance of sports for health, from the point of view of preventive medicine. According to Dipiazza, the new structure “raises the quality of life of a city always on the podium in Italy for inhabitants who practice sport”.
Not only care for the body at the new John Reed, but also for the spirit: about eighty works of urban art are exhibited on the walls and in the spaces of the gym, 20 of which are permanent and 60 temporary, some of which are for sale. The artists are coordinated by Luca Mayr, curator and artistic director of Urban Colors, and Ron Miller, art director of the project. “An opposing contemporary art operation that dialogues with the context”, declared Mayr, in an “environment with strong imperial and rationalist tones”. One of the artists involved is Samuele Frosio, Country Manager Italy of RSG Group, who explained how: “For the second opening of John Reed in Italy we have identified Trieste because historically it is a cradle of encounter of different cultures, arts and sounds”.