The Douglas at Seattle University

So I lived here for a few months over summer break while I was trying to find more permanent housing for the school year.
Location: If you’re a Seattle U student, it’s a great location: close to campus, a block from the bus, convenience store across the street, etc. However, a lot of the rooms face 12^th Avenue, which is incredibly busy at all times of day and night. I lived on the fourth floor, which was basically the third because the first floor is an underground parking garage. I had to buy a huge fan because I couldn’t open the windows at night due to the noise (and I’ve lived in Seattle for two years now).
Rooms: I lived in a 4-​bedroom apartment where each tenant had their own room. There was a large living room that the kitchen connected to, and to the left were two of the bedrooms and one of the bathrooms, to the right, the same. There was lots of storage closets, which was nice, and the appliances and bathrooms are pretty new. The bedrooms themselves vary in size, mine was rather small considering the price. Basically, it was shaped like a long rectangle, which made it difficult to put anything in. I constantly felt like I was living in a hallway, and the giant desk they provide wasn’t very helpful. However, the closet was phenomenal: huge, lots of storage space, and no door, making it really easy to get ready in every day.
Furniture: One of the reasons I chose to live here was that it was furnished (yay!), but that ended up not meaning much. The bedroom came with a bed and mattress (twin size), a desk, and three very large drawers in the closet for clothes. In the kitchen, you get two stools by the counter, and a couch, two chairs, and a coffee table in the living room. None of the furniture was at all impressive, but it’s college students, so I kind of understand. However, I was hoping that «furnished» meant at least a small bedside table and maybe a small dining table and chairs in the living room.
Heat/​AC: It would have been really nice to know I had air conditioning. Too bad that when I moved in, no one told me how to work the incredibly confusing thermostat. I didn’t even know it was there until I had been there for a few days, and I only discovered the AC after I moved out. Plus, it only worked in the living room in my unit. Hooray. Can’t say much about how the heat works because I was only there in the summer, but from the looks of things, there was only a small heating vent in my room.
Amenities: don’t pay for parking, there’s free street parking all around the building. Gym was eh, but at least it was open ²⁴⁄₇. It had two elliptical trainers, one treadmill, one bike, and no weights. Not very encouraging. SU gym is just a block away and it’s so much better. I never used the giant kitchen downstairs because I already had one in my unit, but it looked like it was only the management who ever used it. No one was ever downstairs or outside, but maybe that’s because it was summertime. The front desk was really helpful, but that was all on Housing and Residence Life. However, whenever you had to get to the front desk, you had to swipe your card to get into the lounge area (which made no sense to me), only to swipe your card again to get up the elevators or into the stairs. Overall, not so great.
Management: This is where I started having issues. From the beginning, the landlord wasn’t exactly understanding with me. It was my first time leasing an apartment (which is the case for a lot of the tenants), and I originally was going to sublet, but then the girl I was subletting from decided she’d rather I takeover the lease. Having never leased before, I wasn’t sure of the difference, so when I called in to ask about what paperwork I needed to fill out, the landlord got very snappy and rude with me when I wasn’t sure. Couldn’t he just pull up that information on the computer he is literally always on? I usually ended up working through the desk assistant, and when I showed up to pick up my keys, she wasn’t there, so the landlord told me to come back later when she was. It’s not like I need to move in or anything. I hit problems again when I had an issue with my second month’s rent: the check, and instead of leaving me a voicemail or email to tell me they didn’t get my check, they called, left no message (I was at work), and left an eviction notice on my door. Overall, the management didn’t care, was very unpleasant, and felt less than helpful.
Overall: the management sucks, but everything else is okay (JUST okay… heaven forbid they go for good).

Don’t live here. COMPLETELY unreliable building staff. Seriously, the building manager is the biggest asshole I’ve ever met and he’s completely just not even worth putting up with. The building website also has blatant lies on it. You can’t buzz people into the building. Also, the laundry card reader is almost always broken. Rent is also extremely high. And I’ve worked in construction so I know that although the building is new, it was built on a cheap budget and you’ll figure that out with all of the repairs you’d have to request maintenance for. The leasing office is also completely useless. The desk assistant never has any useful answer and she’s also really unreliable and unprofessional. I lived there for two years and during the second year, the experience heavily changed once they got a new manager. I don’t trust my money with these people. Don’t live here. It’s not worth all the money you would have to pay.