Riverwest is one of the most cost-effective buildings to live in. If you don't care about amenities (e.g. mediocre gym, no pool) and don't mind the oldness of the building, it's the cheapest place you can get while living by yourself or with one roommate.

Do keep your drains always covered though. Because the building is old, you don't want roaches to crawl through the drain on the odd occassion

The apartment is renewed and furnished. Also very spacious and sunny. Not great soundproofing esp. from the windows, which is an issue given that the neighborhood is busy and noisy sometimes

This building is a co-op, so I cannot speak to the other units. Overall, I love the location and love the front desk staff. It is affordable for me. The gym has what I need, but is not particularly nice. My specific unit has had several issues- leaking ceiling, clogged sinks, etc. that took a while to repair. But that is the responsibility of my owner and would vary from unit to unit. Overall its been a good experience with a few hiccups!

Living in this part of the city and being close enough to walk to Penn's campus is great for the amount of rent I pay.

The building itself is a bit older and bare bones but there is a small rec center and business center. The apartment itself is pretty spacious. 1 bed/1 bath, 640 sq ft. Rent includes all utilities. Two wall AC units (one for each room). Two laundry facilities in the building so I’ve never competed for laundry. Perfect location between Bonners and Drinkers, across from 2116 for all your partying needs but without the rent markup. Overall, it’s a great bang for buck.

Great value

Great location, decent gym, quick 20 minute walk to the law school

I have a fantastic landlord who owns the apartment, and so that has been a huge upside to my experience here. The apartment complex itself seemed a little rundown at first but they have been remodeling the lobby and it looks a lot better. The best part of living here is the location in terms of proximity to CHOP and all the best parts of Center City. I've never had issues with electricity or heating here. Has a small fitness area with weights and some cardio machines. The apartment complex is overall a little barebones, but the price really can't be beat for the location. I would love to stay here for all three years of residency.

I picked this apartment for the location which was perfect! It took me twenty mins to get to campus (took the green trolley straight only a few stops) or could take it the opposite direction to easily get farther into the city. I bordered rittenhouse square so it was a very safe neighborhood and easy to walk to popular Philly destinations. The apartment also had an incredible view of the city which I loved! As far as buildings in this location go the price was by far the best but the building itself was much worse as the trade off.

The apartment is definitely a very old building and if location is not your prime motivation I would not recommend it. I had an issue with bugs (expected in a city apartment) and while the apartment sent people it did not clear the issue up. I ended up having to pay an outside exterminator. The heaters also made horribly loud noises during the winter and staff was slow to install the heaters once it got cold.

I also had very mixed experiences with the staff. While some staff were extremely kind and friendly whenever they saw me, I had a very negative experience with a staffer at the front desk. He refused to help me despite the staff the night before telling me that he was supposed to. I was late to get to work and he refused to call his boss and forced me to wait till she arrived. When the boss did she immediately told me that "of course he should have called her!" and kindly gave me her cell for future issues. He never apologized. Similarly when I had a maintenance issue the guy in charge was extremely rude and told me I would just have to wait over a week to get it dealt with even though I had kept bringing up my lack of heat (start of winter). That being said there was staff that worked the front desk who always talked with me and were friendly and made me sad to leave!

Perfect location right opposite 2116, friendly front desk staff, good system for collecting packages, recently renovated lobby, best value for money, units can differ a lot depending on the landlord, some apartments have good views and some don't.