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Convenient if you work at Barnes-Jewish/go to school at WashU
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
12/18/2003
Years at this apartment:
1997
-
2003
There are only two reasons to live in this building.
1. You are a student at the WashU medical campus.
2. You work at Barnes hospital.
If you do not fit into either category then you can find better, cheaper housing elsewhere. Let me list the benefits of the building first.
Location:
You are very close to Barnes/WashU, in fact you live across the street from Jewish. This makes life a whole lot simpler as you will not need parking at the medical campus. You are a half mile away from I-64 (aka US-40 aka "40" as the locals refer to it). This makes getting around town pretty easy. The location is noisy. You live a half mile away from a Level 1 trauma ER but you will start to ignore the ambulances (except the airhorns from the St. Louis FD ambulances). You can walk to a lot of restaurants in the Central West End as well which makes things a lot easier in the summertime.
Apartments:
Small, the building is New York style with mainly kitchenettes. Look for the kitchens which open into the living room and are separated only by a counter which will make the apartment seem larger. Kitchen counter space is at a premium and some apartments come with no dishwasher. Additionally the built-in microwave in the kitchen is very compact in some apartments. Some apartments are positioned so furniture is very difficult to move in/out of the apartment intact. The rooms have multiple layers of paint on them with each layer slathered on top of the last. That said most apartments do get a fresh coat of paint and a new (cheap) carpet. Management is willing to steam clean the carpet at your request (i.e. when it comes time to sign your lease renewal) but will not replace it like some other buildings in the area.
Cable:
The building is now wired for digital cable but as yet does not support cable modems (mainly because Charter does not offer cable modem service in this area yet). Southwestern Bell DSL is an acceptable remedy for this.
Heat:
It is always cold in this building at the beginning of winter. Buy a ceramic space heater. You will need it. Make sure they seal your window A/C units with a tarp or remove them. There are only two settings for heat in this building. Too cold and too hot.
A/C:
Is provided via window units of varying qualities, noise level and energy efficiency.
Noise:
Variable. The walls are thick enough that you will likely not hear anything unless your immediate neighbors are quite loud. For the most part the building is inhabited by people from the medical center so it is usually reasonably quiet.
Parking:
There are there levels of parking available. Free surface lot parking is available to all residents but you will be competing for very few spaces (less than 20) with the remainder of the people not paying for parking. "Valet" parking is good if you drive some type of beater car. You park 2-3 deep and an attendant will move your car to allow others out. At least once a year your car will be left in the accessory position with the battery draining. Most of the time this can be remedied by leaving your key out of the ignition. You can also get "assigned" parking which costs more but gets you your own space. Do this if you still have a paint job you care about on your car. The garage attendants will wash, vacuum, wash the windows in your car for $10. It's not a bad deal.
Washers/dryers:
Were just replaced in 11/03 at long last. The new machines cost $1 to wash, $0.75 to dry and appear to be functioning better than the old ones. There are 8 washers and 8 dryers. As long as you don't plan on doing laundry when everyone else in the building is (i.e. Sunday night) you will be fine.
Exercise room:
Sparse. The hot tub is scary but some people do use it. There are two treadmills, a stair climber, some type of pseudo elliptical trainer, a weight machine, a stationary bike and a sit-up bench available for free. Good if you're too tired to go to a real gym or too cheap to afford one.
Mail:
The best part about the building. If you request the mailman to drop your mail off with the doorman he will. This prevents you from having to hold your mail if you go on vacation/out of town. Magazines and larger items are dropped in a communal floor bin. Things usually never get stolen out of these but someone will eventually throw your magazines away if you don't pick them up in a week. The doorman will sign for all packages that need signatures. Therefore you will never have to go to UPS, FedEx or the post office to pick up a package. It's also far more secure than having your packages left at your doorway.
Management:
Clueless but generally ignorable. The turn-over in managers is pretty quick. They generally last a year or two. They've ranged from slimy to competent to clueless to just plain annoying. If they annoy you, just wait, they'll be gone in a year.
Maintenance:
Will usually fix things..eventually. Learn to expect little and be pleasantly surprised.
Rent:
Always increases $20-25 per year. 2003 was the first year or rent concessions due to the poor rental market. Otherwise lease renewal times are for talking them into doing some degrees of improvements (new kitchen floor, fixtures, etc.) but don't expect wonders.
Storage:
Extra "storage" is available for $5 per month. It's basically a small closet out in the hallway which locks. Good for storing moving boxes although don't tell the fire marshall that. For some reason it's not good to store empty cardboard boxes but if you fill those cardboard boxes with highly flammable paper it's ok.
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