I only live here because its close to OSU. Really, thats the only reason. well ok the apartments are pretty big... Im spoiled having a huge bedroom and walk in closet. Some pros and cons have changed over the 5 years, I am only going to list the current pros/cons since thats all that is relevant.

Pros:
Location
Huge Bedrooms
Very friendly maintenance staff
Some office staff are nice, some.
Trees and hedges look nice, especially in the fall!

Cons:
-NOISE! Walls are paper thin, I hear someones Bass all the time... its coming from every direction it seems! Garbage disposals can be heard too. not to mention the taxi cabs always honking. and thugs/ricers driving by with music blaring. and Im on a second floor. if its 11pm on a weekend night i dont mind it... its my fault for being a loser that night and staying in... but on a tuesday night' Oh... and when the parking garage doors actually worked they would wake me up at all hours because of the ridiculously loud screeching they made that could be heard from mcdonalds.

MORE NOISE!Do you love fire alarms' yes' move here! freshman year in the dorms all over again.

-BUILD QUALITY. Like I said, walls are paper thin. carpet is cheap crap, seams showing thru everywhere. Some apts have Berber I think, I think its random.. some have fake hardwood instead of linoleum... also randomly placed. no medicine cabinets.

UNEVEN floors! yes its true. you can walk in my friends apartment and feel where the floorboards are now uneven, and it shows as a little ledge thru the carpet. maybe a 1/4" lift.

BALCONIES falling apart! yes, all the balconies were put off limits while they "fixed" them... the geniuses that built them didnt seal them well, they all got water damage and sag down. walk down aschinger blvd, you can see balconies being supported by 2x4's. I ---- you not.

GARAGES leak! my car can be parked on the ground floor of the garage, and still get water leaked onto it because of all the gaps in the floors of the garages. Oh ya, the doors havent worked in about a year... which i guess is good since they were loud as hell... bad because...

BREAK INS! a couple times a month you will see shattered glass on the garage floors. Once this was from my car. They once had security cameras to catch people breaking the garage doors... god forbid you could use these to check for break ins.

APPLIANCES- . The fridge is LOUD. when it turns on, guests say "what the hell is that'!" oh its just the fridge. What sounds like an industrial fan' oh its the HVAC system. watching tv and the heat comes on' raise the volume by 15db. No joke, if you are watching a movie.. and i have a good surround system (sorry neighbors!).. the heat or AC comes on and I have to crank the volume just to hear the talking. Speaking of HVAC... the heater was broken for all of november.. had to use the emergency heat. And they have heat vents right over the windows... causes lots of condensation build up and I have to set a towel at the base of the window since water puddle up there. Oh ya, and our washing machine drainage was backed up and caused water damage in the laundry room.

-MANAGEMENT. Ok they are generally nice people... and I like that they check ID for packages... but if I go down there twice a week to get a package, is it that hard to remember who I am so I dont need to carry my wallet down with me' Also ive witnessed the larger one being quite rude to some foreign prospective residents... she seemed to be very frustrated with the fact that they didnt speak clear english... very unprofessional. The blonde has always been polite, and the newer brunette is always exceptionally nice to me as well. I'll give them credit, they try to organize socials which is nice. Ive never gone, but its nice that they do that. But the problem isnt the office workers, its the fact that nothing gets done about any problems. parking has just gotten worse, dog crap is still all over the median, the garage doors are still broken, the security doors are still broken, the intercom is still broken. Maintenance personnel are very nice and seem competent, but a lot of the issues arent regular maintenance, they require specialized technicians to fix.

-GYM. Holy crap what a joke. 3 ellipticals are nice... 2 work without squealing like crazy. Weight room has 2 broken benches, out of 2 benches. the wobble like crazy. have fun lifting the bent up 65 pound dumbells (broken dumbell laying around to give you more confidence)over your head on a wobbly bench. Missing attachments on the universal...along with broken weights on it. All the machines are rusty and squeal and are probably bad for you since they do not have any smooth motion at all. skip it all together.

-LAND MINES. ok not really... but watch where you step when you walk across the median. Cute high maintenance girls like to walk their tiny dogs out there and god forbid they would clean up after them. management provides the bags, you provide the scoop. its part of the deal. too bad management never enforces the poop fines they threaten on the signs. Also, no dogs are supposed to be above the first floor. also not enforced.

-PARKING. yes you've heard the stories! they are true. plenty of available street parking for residents, could add many visitor spots, they don't. garage in building 4 used to have the whole top floor visitor... not anymore.. half of them are painted over and are resident spots.. they dont say residents of course.. just a big white block so unsuspecting visitors can park there and shamrock gets $120. Garages have not been full in 2 years... probably because everyone moved out... but they cant add any visitor spots. I DO like how residents cant park in the limited visitor spots after 7pm tho. but now you cant reserve a spot for your guests. its ok that worked out for the better tho. Game day' dont invite anyone over. they wont find a spot here on game day, or a thurs/fri/saturday nite. go pick up your guests, spare them the headache.

So there you have it. Worst apartment ever' no way. better than average for the rent' no. Can I get a good nites rest most nites of the week' yep. The loud noise usually lets up before I go to bed, and during OSU breaks its close to whisper quiet unless you have a neighbor that likes bass.

worth the extra cost' nope. Every apt complex has its issues, but at the rate these guys charge... and it will go up $150 a year ... you expect way way way better. Like I said, the only reason I live here is because its convenient to OSU, 315, downtown, and lots of food. they are lucky they got this plot of land because the location is the ONLY thing keeping them in business. Would I live here if I didnt have to be close to OSU' no chance.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/16/2007
Safety is a 4 because I personally have never felt unsafe here. My car yes, me no. Go to a campus apartment, maybe one on east 7th or 6th... you'll see what a 0 safety is really like. I mentioned the larger office worker in the review already. They used to have security cameras, maybe they have been taken down. Thanks.
From: Meridien-------911	Date: 12/16/2007
thanks for the information anyway, I understand why your car is not in danger, i know every single car in meridien, i meet in the road, it is meridien cars. I know why the thieves are so smart in doing this, they look at your car first at 2a.m in the morning, and preparation to break-in to your car. I mean come on 9 cars? there's already been prepared before. They do it on weekdays because weekends there's lots of people going home at night so they won't do it.. Cars like mercedez, lexus, toyota camry the new one, toyota corolla n celica, every honda cars, Infiniti,.. These cars may not been taken by thieves because the radio is attached on their car. Yeah, that's why you must be one of the the owners of those cars. My car is 2006, i don't want to say which one, but it not one of those cars i say, yeah, my air condtioner is broken because of them, lots of damage in my car than everybody else, seem that stupid moron try to force to take my audio. You know what the damage after i check in for reparation $1500. you know what the office staff say? They say "they also got this incident before, and i feel sory this," and the rest doesn't care and doesn't do anything. Yeah you may say i'm unlucky to get this incident, actually this apartment just cause me unlucky in this incident and i have to pay damage that i shouldn't have $1500 for this stupid incident, i have to wait for prosecution for getting my money back. You think they would pay you $1000, you better hope for, They just got you $300 for each person, lets wait and see in february what they got for me. See the trial, if i'm not getting this one, the meridien supposed to be sue.
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/16/2007
where is the crap suddenly has security camera??? There's no security camera anyway. if they do, they won't care anyway. Safety 4? Stupid. it is 0! break in, garage door broken, door broken, bicycle losing? You think that safety 4? nice staff? i mean come on.. But after you write this, you are not obviously the staff writing down this one.. I think you know all things don't you? How about that ------ fatty one in the office? i've been treating like a crap when i ask my car sticker, she thinks me is not the residents there. Wtf is wrong with that fatty one, she thinks i own her money or what. The most humiliation ever i got in columbus.
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/18/2007
What a well written review, very entertaining. I lived here from 2002-mid 2005 ( like you I stayed 2 yrs too long due to laziness.) 2002-2003, were the early days when they were marketing to mid-late 20's Grandview professionals (that was me) At first they had berber carpet, and the median age was about 24. Things really changed in late 04'. The median age dropped to 21, the majority of people were on college/party schedule as opposed to first career schedule. With this came louder, faster driven cars. Huge groups of drunk 20 yr olds trashing the hallways ( they loved knocking the plastic covers off the hallway lights, and smashing them for some reason), and no visitor spots, because College kids have dozens of friends. ( it changes a bit when you start your first real job.) In late 04' they fazed out the nice berber, to this depressing brownish cheap carpeting,and the white linoleum, was replaced by this depressing brown linoleum (once the focus changed to College kids they lowered the quality of the interiors in my opinion) So I wonder if the writer of this review, (who probably lived here when I did) noticed the same de-evolution from young professional to OSU Dorm. Don't get me wrong I liked to party sometimes ( still do) just not Meridian style.
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/29/2007
I was an original Meridian resident when I moved to town in summer 2000. I moved in to one of the first completed buildings while the rest of the place was still being built. Of course it was nice at first, it was all brand new and it was indeed marketed to appeal to an older (20 something) professional. I decided to buy somewhere and moved out by end of 2002. By end of '02 it was starting to get janky. The hot tub couldn't ever be used because people couldn't seem to control themselves in it. It was always drained or cordoned off with yellow caution tape like a crime scene. Also my next door neighbor got in an altercation with her room mate one night and kicked her out. There was a girl literally screaming in the hallway for hours to be let in to get her stuff. The police had to be called and I noticed the next day this girl was hauling her stuff out with a police escort..nice. Finally, I recall the office staff posted flyers around the community indicating that after hours pool parties and noise were a frequent problem. The flyers indicated that if this was disturbing you you shouldn't bother calling the after hours emergency office number, that you should just pass it off immediately to the Columbus po-po's. I noticed shortly after I moved out that the original mgt. company bailed and it changed hands. I also saw the news report around that time about someone in my former building @Meridian playing with a gun at an early morning hour party had killed himself. I totally agree with the posted comment about median age decreasing over time. I live in a condo about a mile down the street so I still go by there and sometimes I still use the gym in a pinch. It really isn't maintained all that great and the place is definitely overrun with OSU students. If you don;t mind the parade of souped up cars and people trashing the place move here. I feel badly for the people tasked with maintaining this place.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/14/2008
thank you for writing your review i was about to sign the contract when i decided to search for reviews ... since i hate noisy places ... your review changed my mind.... won't live so close to osu but at least i will be able to sleep at night... also the ladies in the office weren't that polite....

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates