Decent apartments, great location (walk to bus; 30 min. to downtown)
From:
phils181
Date posted:
4/5/2008
Years at this apartment:
2007
-
2008
I was looking around at some of the reviews of other apartments in Pittsburgh on this site, and they all seem either very brief (and useless), or generally too biased one way or the other. I've tried to provide a more moderate review that talks about the pros and cons in a non-excited manner. I hope this helps you make your decision.
Parking: On Teal Trace there always seems to be enough parking fairly close to the buildings. When I am heading out the door at 5am, the lot still isn't full from overnight parkers. I pay attention to cars, and there are not a lot of visitors to this complex, so I don't think you will ever have a problem finding parking.
Garages: some of the garages are nice, some not as nice. Pros: I had no problem obtaining a garage for the year, and you keep it as long as you are paying the bill. Sometimes they give specials on the garages. They keep the worst of the weather and heavy ice off in the winter, which is nice. Cons: Maybe 3 of the banks of garages are on level ground; the rest are not, which means there is a good chance that if you get a garage, it will be like mine and have about a 10" gap between the bottom of the garage door and the pavement, and your car will be parked at an angle. The garages are relatively deep (there is room for my sedan with about 2 feet to spare in front for storage), but tight on the sides, and unfinished. Additionally, they do not afford much protection from rain (lots of gaps for weather to get in, though the roof seems fine), so if you are renting the garage for the purpose of protecting your recently-waxed Audi from the elements, you might as well not bother paying the extra $65 per month in rent.
Noise: Walls are thin enough that I can hear my neighbors downstairs yelling at each other (frequently; though I can't make out the words (they yell loudly)), and if my downstairs neighbor cranks his Samsung 8" woofer to top volume, it literally shakes my entire apartment. Perhaps the worst source of noise (which I never would have guessed)is the noise coming through the sliding-glass door that leads to the patio. Unfortunately, as soon as your neighbors move out onto the porch, even speaking at normal levels, their conversation now includes you as well...it's literally as if they are standing next to your bed having their conversation.
Shared walls: all the apartments share at least one bedroom wall. The only problems I have had trying to sleep are the aforementioned fights and music from downstairs (mercifully rare), and a problem I had when I moved in with the neighbor 1.5 floors down (due to the apartment building being situated on a hill) that 'shared' my wall. Basically, even the little amount of bass she was playing in her bedroom (via computer speakers/sub) travelled directly up the wall (which amplified it quite nicely) and I had to go down about 5 times, then to the office, to get the neighbor to cut out the noise at 3am.
Overally, I would say that compared to other apartments I had in college, this one seems to have about the same amount of college-age or young professional-types (as well as quite a few doctors apparently), so you get slightly less noise than at a typical college apartment, but there are still occassional parties and late-night noise to deal with.
Grounds: No complaints here. They seem well landscaped in typical modern apartment style - nothing spectacular, quite a few trees and nice bushes I suppose, but not a jungle or anything. One issue that we had this winter were the formation of very large, deep potholes on Teal Trace, which bent the rim of one of my neighbor's cars. It took about 2 months for the issue to be temporarily fixed; in the meantime, they put signs up to warn of the potholes and advise residents that they were trying to fix them. Took them a while, but they were fixed about a month after the signs went up.
Safety: There are always plenty of girls out walking dogs, and I personally am outside at 5am every day, and have never felt unsafe walking to the car or anything. It's really a pretty quiet complex as far as visitor traffic goes, at least in my section. Decent amount of lighting around, but no emergency boxes or anything.
Construction: Typical new-construction apartments. Of course, by "new" I mean constructed sometime in the late 70's to early 80's. That being the case, the outsides of the buildings look like they could have been built more recently, and the insides still look new/modern, with the exception of the bathroom fixtures (kind of dated) and the carpet (thin and somewhat worn). Another oddity is that there are chair rails in my dining room nook, but no baseboards anywhere.
Note on construction: I have neighbors that have the newly-renovated 2 bdrm/2 bath, and it is MUCH nicer inside (they also pay about $400 more per month). If you really want a nice interior, ask about the renovated apartments. Mine has the standard white countertops (hard to keep clean). The fireplace is nice, but you have to pay for the glass doors (about $100), so that is something to consider. See the parking section for a review of the garage construction.
Maintenance: Emergency response is excellent if needed (I reported a leaking faucet, which they interpreted as an emergency leak, and they took the initiative to call after hours to make sure I didn't need immediate service). For routine issues (slow sink, broken faucet, etc.) they are generally out to do the work within 2 days max. All of the maintenance guys are very friendly and helpful in general, and I know at least one lives on the property, so I would say overall my experience with maintenance has been great.
Staff: As mentioned, the maintenance staff is friendly and seems competent. Office staff is also pretty nice. They do remember your name, even if you are not in very often, which I take as a positive sign. Also, they are pretty good about looking out for other deals for different apartments for you if you ask. Any maintenance requests I have put in to them have been passed on to maintenance promptly and the issue resolved. Overall, they are at least above-average to great, but not excellent.
Overall:
Amenities: pool, hottub, gym, raquetball and tennis courts are all clean and used frequently during the summer.
Parking: no complaints overall.
State of apartment: Overall clean, no bug problems, though it is quite drafty in the winter due to sliding doors (average about $85 electric per month and about the same for gas (water heater is gas)
NOTE: IF YOU LIVE IN A NORTH-FACING APARTMENT, YOU ARE FORCED TO BUY THE CRAPPY COMPLEX CABLE/INTERNET PACKAGE, which is nowhere near what you can get via DISH in the South-facing apartments. If you want any kind of HD, go for the south-facing apartment, as it is UNAVAILABLE in a North-facing apartment (though I get some HD broadcast with a homemade HD antennae in mine; no ESPN HD though).
Noise/neighbors: Neighbors are all freindly enough, though not very social. Noise is bearable during the winter, somewhat annoying during the other seasons due to some college-age folks around the complex that throw parties.
The biggest assest of the complex is the bus stop about 1/4 mile down the street (across McKnight). You can walk to the bus in about 12 minutes, then it's a 30 minutes ride to downtown (Smithfield/7th) on the 13A, and the bus is never too crowded to find a seat going into town at this location.
That's about all I can say about the place. Certainly overpriced, but convenient to downtown and shopping, and it seems safe/relatively quiet overall. I would recommend it if you are looking for new construction and lots of amenities, can afford the rent here and have a heavy comforter for winter.
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