The rent isn't too bad, and the views are enticing, but the smog in the summer intensifies during the day, making it hard to breath in the building from my perspective. Please remember that this entire review is only my opinion. There is very little ventilation drawing smoke out of the halls. If your neighbor smokes, you'll smell it. Air from outside is drawn into the building through your windows, and it passes into the halls, so the building gets pretty smoky from the numerous smokers. There are a lot of Asian tenants who smoke I've seen. The walls are fairly well insulated, unless someone drops a golf ball on the kitchen floor. Then everyone around hears it through the concrete, but I never heard a television.

Spoken adjustments were made to my contract without prior approval. 60-day required notification of move-out pops up, although my contract said 30.

"Leverage" is used to earn extra money for the apartment building. In many ways, including utilities and trash... Question parking fees extremely carefully. They charge extra for bike storage, parking, and whatever new charge they can discover after you move. One example is with intention to vacate. You plan for 30 days and give notice, but then you are held responsible for charges for 60 days. Clarify this part of your contract when you move in. If you have plenty of money to spend, this place is for you. Laundry facilities for a network of 2000 units isn't less expensive... $2 to wash and dry a load! Aren't networks supposed to cut down on expenses' There are other laundry facilities in the surrounding barrios.

The Friendly Lease agreement has a 60 day lease termination ammendment. If you sign this contract to be released of your lease early and agree to pay retro-active charges for each month to cover a different lease agreement, you sign over your rights to have a 30 day agreement to vacate altered to a 60 day agreement. That means they make money on the extra days that you won't be in the apartment, two different ways. That's the secret of how this place charges less for rent. The system... Also, guests have free parking nights and weekends, but if they make one little mistake, the parking fee is $16 ($1.85 per 20 minutes)

Valets lose keys in different areas of the building because cars are shuffled around if you pay the $60 per month for general parking. They keep accurate paperwork on your cars half the time. Make sure they tag your keys and give you a stub. Then again, when they move your car, they don't always write down the new location. The parking structure is considered a different company than the apartment building, but it's one big happy network. Valets arrive to the key stations late in the morning. I heard cars have been stolen here too. I never had items stolen from my vehicle, but many of the video camera mounts are empty.

Maintanence entered my apartment three times without prior approval, each time to fix something that was reported broken in a different building, once while I was on the toilet. They entered while I was in the bathroom, and once while I was sitting in my undies and wearing headphones. I don't know why they confuse the two buildings. Many staff members speak a foreign language and are new to the country.

The elevators break, and I think I heard people who were stuck in the elevator shaft before. I have also heard it "happened" before. The wall paper in the hall on one floor was left peeled to the floor for 8 months.

People urinate near the valet station... I wonder who.

The building swayed during the last earthquake, for you thrill seekers. There is a breathtaking view of jet planes taking off over the southern sky scrapers. Helicopters traffic the skies too.

Grocery stores are deep in the barrios, unless you drive about 15 minutes on the freeways.

I would still recommend this apartment to anyone interested in breathtaking views of the valley, if you can handle it.

P.S. If someone made up an apartment number, they could park for free for the weekend, and after 5 p.m. weeknights. They don't have any system in place to confirm visitors who bypass the lobby. There are also empty camera mounts in the stairwells. The outside entrance does't always shut securely. Take care if you're in the stairs alone. Homeless people gather in hords around this area of the city.

The free ways are great from this vantage point. You will always go the opposite direction of traffic, unless you're going southbound.

Good luck!

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