The Foundry

The building is great for college students but I would not live here if I was not a student. The walls are thin, the material is cheaper. It serves its purpose for housing students but is not somewhere that would be a place to raise a family, etc.

I do think it is a little pricey, but it is very convenient to campus, especially for the business students. The management is very good. They always address issues and the buildings are very clean. My main drawback is that it is not very homey. The airducts are exposed and somewhat loud, and it just overall has a very industrial feel/look to it all. Not necessarily bad, but not my style. Also I found out after I signed my lease that Foundry South is much different than Foundry North, most notably the 2 block, 5 minute walk between the two. Plus your parking is in Foundry North regardless of where you live, which is a bit of a hassle living separate from the garage.

Units are standard layout. Proximity to Mendoza and Eddy St is a plus. Parking in the garage is a value add, especially during the winter. Management team is miserable to deal with and rent pricing is the highest in the area.

These look like super nice apartments and the quick walk to class cannot be beat. However, it's frustrating to work with their office and maintenance, the elevators are always broken, and even though Foundry South is advertsied as grad students only, there are PLENY of lound undergrads. Would not choose to live here again if I would have known.

The Foundry is a great place to live because it is located in safe walking distance from campus. It can get noisy however and it is so expensive.

My experience with the housing itself has been fine. It is a great location near campus. The management staff can be fickle and troubling to work with sometimes. There is a slow time to fixing amenities which can be frustrating.

I lived at the Foundry as an undergrad and had a great experience, which is why I decided to return as a grad student. My experiences could not be more different. The complex used to be professionally run, and now it is the most poorly managed apt complex I have resided in. When I arrived my unit had not been cleaned, the tub would not drain, the dryer vent was clogged, there wasn't hot water in the shower, there was an ongoing noise from the A/C, the smoke detectors went off constantly, my furnished unit wasn't furnished, and I didn't have a trash can. Having moved in, the trash service is spotty, I think it is ridiculous to be charged $90/month for a parking garage I use 1-2 nights a month, my electric bill for my 550 sf apt is close to or the same as for my 2000 s.f. house in FL, the street noise requires me to wear ear plugs every night, and the elevator is broken routinely. So why am I still here? The location. It is the most convenient place to live and walk to campus each day, especially during football weekends. I feel more safe walking to campus at night living here than if I lived anyplace else near campus. I still think the apartments are the nicest of those I have visited so far in South Bend. They are bright and modern and well-appointed. The amenities at the complex are also nice.

The unit that my wife and I are in is small and expensive. The building is brand new, so there are many niceties that come with that. The in-unit washer/dryer is very nice, as is the covered parking, the gym access, the proximity to the campus, and having food options nearby (though no grocery stores unless you want to walk a mile to Martin's). The closet is also a good size. Lots of room for storage (we fit six bins on the rack above the hanging clothes and another two below).

Negatives include trash pickup (there is no chute, they come pick it up (supposed to be) every day - meaning people leave trash cans in the hallway around 7pm), leaky AC (I have seen it leak in four different areas of the building so far), no windows (only a "balconette" door that is not screened - there is nowhere to step outside, it is a rail immediately in front of the inward-opening door - meaning that the only way for fresh air is to open the entire door), and a weird cutout in the "bedroom" wall that makes it more of a studio (the cutout means that noise isolation between bedroom and kitchen/living room is difficult and smells/smoke from cooking waft into the bedroom every time). Also, the parcel room is messy. They hired someone to come and sort the packages, because it got out of control. Packages do get delivered to wrong buildings relatively frequently or just do not show up for a few days. One of the two elevators also is only working about half of the time.

Management seems fine. I never hear my neighbors directly beside me, but hallway noise is bad and upstairs noise is mediocre.

They advertised the building as being graduate students only - this did not turn out to be true. I know very few graduate students in the building. Almost every single person that I have met has been an undergraduate student.

The apartment is pretty nice, but it costs more than it is worth.

I've really enjoyed living at the Foundry for the past several months. Cons are that maintenance service has been 50/50, and the northern part of the complex near Brothers can be loud at night. But the apartments are beautiful, they keep the sidewalks well-maintained, the area is well-lit at night, and there's an underground parking garage in two of the buildings in Foundry South. I can walk from my apartment to the law school in about 15 minutes. Lots of law and business students live here. The front desk staff love dogs. I lived at the Overlook for my first two years of law school, but I moved to the Foundry South for my third year, and I'm so glad I did!

The best thing about living at the Foundry (the older building) is that it is located on Eddy Street, close to campus, and the parking is covered. However, all of these benefits come at a cost that is much higher than the other options in the surrounding area. The high cost of living at the Foundry is especially frustrating when things are not working as they should and you have to try to contact the management company. All the amenities and the general premises of the Foundry are poorly kept. Appliances are either or both old and cheap, the gym equipment (in the old gym and new gym (note I had to pay extra for a key to the new gym)) is constantly dirty, and the package room is a nightmare (it is sometimes so frustrating to locate packages that you give up and leave). Furthermore, if you are looking security, keep looking, there is one security guard for 100s of units. If a problem occurs at night there is never anyone from the building available to help. One semester fire alarms consistently went off in the middle of the night and there was no one from the building available to deal with the problem. If the power goes out which it sometimes does, the emergency lights only stay on for about an hour and the the main doors to the building lock, so if you leave the building, you cannot re-enter. If you call the Foundry helpline at night, you will be rerouted to a person who is unfamiliar with the building and unable to help in a meaningful way.