If you're going here, then you're an NU student, s...

If you're going here, then you're an NU student, so price is "free", though I think adding a rec fee to the tuition is a bit unreasonable.

Equipment is well-maintained, clean, and relatively modern. There's a couple basketball courts, a field hockey arena, an indoor track, and a few aerobics rooms in addition to a reasonably equipped weight area and a TON of varied cardio machines. Classes and training are offered as well, but I haven't done either.

The big problem is that it's not able to serve as many students as it does. The hours are actually really good for a uni gym (5 AM?!), and the space overall is big enough, but the balance is off. There are always plenty of open cardio machines and rarely open power racks and benches.

This isn't helped by equipment often being broken and/or missing attachments, rules against deadlifting outside of the racks, and having only one toilet per floor. Also, forget Olympic lifting, there are no platforms or bumper plates, and they're not very tolerant of noise.

Overall, if you have access to Cabot and want to lift, go there. If you don't, strongly consider Squashbusters when it's open; it's smaller, but proportionally better balanced and less used. Otherwise, Marino isn't bad, it just shoots itself in the foot in a couple ways.