RobbReport
April 1999
Quiet Giant
By TOBI ELKIN
For urbanites living in elegant town houses, funky lofts, or penthouse apartments perched high above city streets, quiet may be the ultimate luxury. Citiquiet, a New York City-based company, specializes in noise-canceling windows and acoustical walls, ceilings, floors, and doors, all of which help remove the annoyance of piercing car alarms, blaring ambulance sirens, and the groans and screeches of predawn garbage trucks.
At its Upper East Side showroom, Citiquiet works with designers, architects, and contractors to customize a quiet approach for each client. The company offers windows with four different level of soundproofing: 50, 70, and 90 percent, as well as virtual silence. "We know we can't reach 100 percent silence and still meet the fire code, but we can get virtual silence." Says Michael Lentin, Citiquiet's president.
Company projects have included sound proofing a recording studio in the apartment of a well-known rock-and-roll artist, eliminating noise from the workshop floor of furniture maker Henry Chan, and erecting acoustical walls for the sets of NBC's Saturday Night Live and ABC's The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Boutique hotels in New York such as Morgan's, the Mercer, and the Hotel Plaza Athenee have also gotten into the act.
