I lived in Skyline Towers last year, just moved out. Prior to moving in, I read the reviews on this website, but with each place I've lived, I find the reviews on here to be pretty extreme. I write this review trying to be fair to Skyline and fair to potential new renters.

Negatives:
*Really really smelly basements due to the trash, sometimes it smelled like a rotting corpse in the basement of the South Tower and I would rush from the elevators to the door with my nose plugged.
*Anyone can come and go as they please and random people who don't live in the building use the work out facility and probably other facilities as well. Keep your doors locked and bolted like you would anywhere.
*10 minute drive to Ballston metro and very few late night buses, mean that if you want to go out in DC, you should plan on a $30 cab ride or to stay with a friend in the city.
*The "european washer" that washes and dries your clothing is a total wrinkle machine. Each load takes 3.5 hours to wash and dry your clothing and they still come out wrinkled and damp. The machine can only wash/dry a load half the size of a normal washer and dryer unit. So, it can take a full week to wash 3 average sized loads of laundry. You can pay to use "normal" washers and dryers in the building, but I refused to pay anything extra. So, I had to iron EVERYTHING as soon as it came out of this "european washer/dryer unit." Even jeans and cotton t-shirts, ridiculous.

Positives:
*Really large spacious apartments with nice balconies for a reasonable cost.
*Good maintenance to the apartments, though sometimes the CONSTANT repairs can become aggravating.
*I never saw a single bug in my apartment the entire year I lived at Skyline. The advice I received from a friend is that if you live in a high rise, try to choose an apartment far away from the trash and on an upper level. We were at the end of the hall and above the 10th floor, so we did not have problems.
*One of my roommates was a deadbeat, bounced checks 4 times and ran up tons of late fees. The office was good about differentiating between my terrible roommate and me, realizing that I paid my rent in full and on time. When I moved out they gave me a good rental reference and I appreciated it considering that my roommate was so horribly irresponsible and we had a shared lease.
*Not a bad place to start, if you're moving to the DC area straight out of college or grad school and don't have a lot of money, but you'll want something better after a year here.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/25/2008
This is the most accurate review I've read of ST so far - especially about the washer/dryer. As for the smell, I've started walking around the outside instead of through the basement hallway. There are dead flies everywhere now, which I think is because they're trying to find the source of the smell. They've torn up the walls in the south tower valet so maybe that's where it's coming from.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/25/2008
It's interesting that you moved out after one year if you liked it so much. I wonder if your great arrangement with management - considering bounced checks - was in return for this write-up. Your actions speak louder than words. If you liked it so much, you would still be living there.
From: mcfrmks	Date: 06/25/2008
"Not a bad place to start, if you're moving to the DC area straight out of college or grad school and don't have a lot of money, but you'll want something better after a year here." I wanted something better after a year. I had more money and wanted to live closer to work and to a metro. Like I said in the review there are positives and negatives to living at skyline. I certainly had no arrangement with management. :)
From: worldokp	Date: 06/25/2008
I also agree that this is the most accurate post to date. I have lived there for about a year. Not sure if I will re-up or not, yet. But there seems to be one poster (anonymous, of course) that continues to spout exaggerations, paranoid fantasies regarding "arrangements with management, and outright racism on these postings, and they are WAY overblown. As a young, white female, this place is usually fine.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/26/2008
I used to live in this mecca for vermin. Dont make the mistake and beleive the 1 in four that claim they would recommend it. They are either management, employees thereof, or part of the Al Quds ilk. Only these types woulnd recommend and endure sleeping at this slum. It's great place to monitor with helicopters though; I see F.B.I. flying over that building (or NSA) frequently...no doubt with listening devices. That building is freakin scary man. I mean I saw a swarthy man beating his wife in the lobby. I think that is acceptable is some cultures, but not in America man. Many of the people that live there attend a school that has been recently reported to support the idea of executions for adultery (dont ask me how that applies to those that have several wives), and also death for conversion. It's still 732 A.D. over there!
From: dare22041	Date: 06/27/2008
I've lived in Skyline Towers for a year and this review accurately describes the situation there. Both good and bad. Yes, anonymous, there are a lot of Muslims in the building. Head scarfs that don't cover the face don't bother me. The only ones that really bother me are the "ninja" women with full face masks! I imagine that those women (and the men they are presumably "obeying"), must hold some pretty radical beliefs. It really just makes me sad for them.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/10/2008
I think you work all day and just came home to sleep...If you stay at home you will see all the bugs and rats we are talking about...

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