The Foundry

I love the apartment. The amenities are amazing: a pool, a gym, study rooms, ect. My apartment is beautiful and in a great location to walk to school. My only complaint is if you have to do anything with the management or leasing office it is going to take a very long time to get done. Do not expect dealing with the office to be quick or easy.

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.

I have been very pleased with The Foundry. It is a fantastic location, the apartment is very spacious, and all the amenities/features are great. Additionally, the common spaces on the second floor of my building are a nice place to go study if you want a change of scenery. The only downsides are it is more expensive than other complexes around and the gym could use a little maintenance.

The management staff can be difficult to work with, but you simply cannot beat the location. I tis right across the street from campus, plenty of options for food at the street level, and a parking garage so you do not need to shovel your car out in the winter.

The Foundry's management team is uncommunicative and generally unresponsive. The cost of living is high here, compared to other options in the area: rent is anywhere from 300 to 500 dollars more than other options. Management will try to nickle and dime you for things like a gym access key. Additionally, the rent only includes parking. You have to pay additional charges for furniture rental, water, sewage, trash disposal, electricity, and internet. The only trash disposal option is valet trash - you set your trash outside of your door and it gets picked up anywhere between 24 to 48 hours after. The street tends to be loud because of all of the bars and shops below - which can be a good thing if you're looking to be near the center of activity, or a bad thing if you want peace and quiet.
While there are a lot of downsides, the design of the apartments, covered parking, and convenience of being near campus make this place worth it.

It's a good spot for 2 years. I also lived in Overlook and it's a significant upgrade over that

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 features and quality of the apartment are probably the nicest in South Bend, definitely within walking distance of the Law School. But since they've allowed undergraduates to live in the graduates only buildings, and made NO accommodations for the inconvenience/added noise/parties, I would not expect much from the management. Most of the office staff is pretty unresponsive or alternatively clueless, so if you live there, just you know, avoid needing them.