I've lived here almost two years and overall I've had very few negative things to mention about the…read moreTalmadge. The Talmadge is a historic apartment building right at the corner of Wilshire and Berendo. From my upper floor window I can see down Wilshire Blvd, the Griffith Observatory, and Hollywood.
Service here is pretty good. The 3-4 door guys are all really nice (24 hours a day). They have never lost one single item of mail, and I get a ton of packages so you don't have to worry about being home when FedEX/UPS/USPS come here to deliver your mail.
The Talmadge has all different sized apartments. I live in a 5 bedroom apartment. Two of the rooms have their own bathroom, and then 3 of us share the 3rd bathroom. Also, note one room is technically like a dining room converted into a room, but it's very spacious. Our monthly rent is $3,999.00 + $125 for gas = $4,078 a month. That's split (unevenly) 5 different ways so it's really one of the cheapest places to live in LA.
Here are some positives about the building:
*TWO blocks from the Vermont/Wilshire Metro Station
*LOTS of bars/restaurants that you can walk to. I'm looking at you, Line, Brass Monkey, R Bar, Palm Tree LA, S Bar, Da Sung Sa...
*There is a courtyard where you can relax, and there's even a grill that you can borrow for a cook out. Some people reserve this on weekends for parties.
*Residents are super friendly. As of this writing most people that live here are over 30 and/or have a family.
*There is a trash chute that is in between apartments buildings so that you can get rid of your trash easily.
*You can put an air conditioner in your window.
*The walls here are super thick. We blast, and I mean blast music, and have never had a complaint. Also, I've never heard the people next to us, below us, or above us.
*Although there is now a sign prohibiting going to the rooftop...you should just ignore it. The views from the rooftop at night are beyond breath taking. You can see all of downtown. It's really a shame that the Talmadge hasn't put money into the roof to add a fire pit and seating like at the newer buildings that you can see from the rooftop around us.
Now onto some of the bad things:
*It took SIX MONTHS to fix the laundry room. The laundry room consists of 4 washers and 4 dryers for all of the residents to share. Laundry costs $1.50 and the dryer costs $1.25.
*The work out room is a joke. The treadmill has been broken the entire time I've lived here. Therefore there is no working treadmill. There are some dumbbells and machines, but it's small and bad. Plus you have to "check" out the key to get in there and it's a bit of a hassle. There's a stationary bike and an elliptical, but that's about it.
*It is $125 a month to park your car at the building. It is a valet type service where they will bring your car up to the street level when you're ready to leave.... Or you can park across the street for $85 a month and go get your car yourself.
*Dust here is awful. I don't know if it's an LA thing, but my room is forever dusty.
*The water gets shut off about every other week from a 9-5 period. This can be problematic you know if you forget that it's a day when they shut off the water.
*There are constant film crews here. They will overtake the lobby of the building and the parking surrounding the building. This also means that they overtake the elevator. This annoys some residents, but it doesn't bother me much as I always make a point to go eat their free food in exchange for them hogging the elevator.
*The maintenance guy is super nice, and I really don't ever know if it's his fault or he's too busy, but he isn't exactly on demand. You might be waiting a while for repairs. Luckily we haven't had too many things break, other than our door, and he repainted our bathroom.
*If you get cold, you CANNOT control the heat. Some staff member at the building turns the heat on and off for EVERYONE (however, our apartment does have a working fireplace although I've never turned it on)
After reading about plenty of other horror stories at apartment complexes I'm pretty satisfied with the Talmadge. Every apartment building has pluses and minuses, but luckily no deal breakers yet. Also of note, my rent has NOT increased in 2 years.