Apartment Review for 14 West Elm - Chicago, IL

As a place to live, the building isn't compleatly horrible, especially if you're a student. It can get loud at times, from both tenants and from the fun going on outside. That's not really a problem if you know you're living in a building with bars downstairs, and around the corner, that go till 4am. There are two problems that should warn a renter away from this apartment building: 1) Electricity, elevators and water. The building is old and there is a weird dust made of small red and blue strands that you'll find all over your clothes and bed, but the problems it experiences with water and electricity go beyond that. During the time I lived there, the power throughout the entire building went out on multiple occations. And stayed out for hours at a time. It is so bad that on one occasion, a fire was reported in the building, and people were forced to evacuate. The emergency lights in the stairwells did not work, and I was forced to use what light I could from my cell phone to get down to the exit. When the power goes out, the elevators go down too, so if you want to live on an upper floor, be prepaired to return from class and walk up a dark and steep stairway. Speaking of the elevators; even when the power is working, the elevators stop working on a regular basis, and can take days to repair. Additionally, be aware that there are only 2 elevators in the building, as one doubles as a frieght. Expect multiple nights returning from work or class only to find someone moving in/out, and half the building waiting for the one availible elevator. That's especially fun in the summer. One last item about the elevators to be aware of is that they are very small. Moving larger furniture is much harder than it should be. Don't be fooled if the management suggests it wont be a problem because they will simply put the item on top of the elevator and move it for a small fee. The small fee when I lived there was $100, and only certain items can be put on the top of the elevator. Moving on to the water, I'll be brief. Hot water comes and goes (sometimes for days at a time), sometimes its brownish-orange, and leaving any of it in your glassware leaves an unsettling and tough to remove hard white substance. After my first week at 14 W. Elm, I never drank the tap water again. For the amount of money you'll be paying, you deserve a place that's not a disguised superfund site. 2) The management company. I do not mean Sam or Mike, the night security guy. I do not mean the pleasant and quick maintenance crew. I mean the company that actually runs the building. Make no mistake: They are there to profit off you, and they do not care about your problems. The quick maintenance crew is there only to keep tenants from becoming dissillusioned and looking at the building's problems a little too closely. This company has been sued in the past for violations relating to renter's money. Keep that in mind.