There are a lot of mixed reviews about this building, most are true but far exaggerated.

Starting with the street, during the day its fine, everything you can expect in Center City; by night, although you do usually have to wade through the sea of --- men smoking cigarettes outside of Woody's, I couldn't feel more safe. Moreover, after 9:00pm there is often a police car parked on the block.

The door people I find to be very nice, not always the most cheerful bunch, but they do their job. I know most of them and they always buzz me in before I get to the door, I rarely need to unlock it myself (which takes two seconds swiping my wallet in front of the digital card reader).

The lobby is nice; X-mas was a few weeks ago and they did a nice job decorating. The elevators have been so-so lately, yet since I moved in they haven't made my life hell. Sure they smell and are small, but you get what you pay for in this city. Whats been more of a nuisance were the fire alarms. Last fall there were two very early morning fire alarms ( 5am) which was very disagreeable. The garbage room is often disgusting, I've seen the entire room filled with 4' of garbage which doesn't smell good, yet you can't smell that in the lobby, nor can you see it so I don't see how that makes it a horrible place.

The apartment itself isn't luxurious. When I moved in with my wife (we are both students at Penn) the place was a mess, but we spent one weekend scrubbing the floors and painting the walls and now we love it. Although I have heard of other units having mice, we have a cat, and I haven't seen one mouse, roach, junebug, anything. I once saw a dead cockroach in the basement while I was getting my bike out of the bike room. Compared to the last place I lived in where there were many cockroaches, this has been great; try to find a bug/mouse free place in a row house . . .

The kitchen and bathroom are small, thought ours isn't as small as some of the other units I've seen, but there's quite a bit of closet space.

All-in-all, you get what you pay for. Though located on the fringe of the gayborhood right next to Woody's, its still a great location - equidistant from Rittenhouse or Old City, and very close to Septa, the Reading Terminal Market, the Gallery, Starbucks, all that Center City has to offer. This is not a luxurious apartment building and you're not paying for it. I've been here for a year and a half, since I started grad school, and I'll will definitely stay another year and a half until I finish, then we'll see. My only fear is that between now and then the building will be sold, converted to condos, and we'll have to move - I don't want to - I like it here. I don't know where else I could get a corner unit on the upper half of a 24 story building in Center City with a great view of south Philly for $900 a month.

A Note on some of the stars:

Parking : join phillycarshare, I don't have a car but parking doesn't look like fun around here - though there are three phillycarshare locations (6 cars total I believe - I always take from the same spot on Locust) in a one block radius.

Noise : Can get loud with the windows open at night (there's more activity on this street after the sun goes down). Inside, I can hear people in the hallway, though I can never hear people in adjacent units - very thick plaster walls.

Grounds : Fine by my standards.

Service Staff : Office staff could care less, doorman and maintenance are great.

I would recommend this building to a person with thick skin - you get what you pay for.

Originally written in 2007

Update 2009: Well, after fours years we are finally moving. After looking for comparable apartments in the area every year before renewing our lease, we never found a better apartment. Now we are relocating to Europe and are leaving the city for good. I'm more than happy we stayed in this apartment building and will be a bit sad to leave it. In my original post rent was $900, in the last two years its risen to $1025, but still not bad compared to the rest of Center City.

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