The Piazza — Attraction in Philadelphia

Pros: The Cove (pool, hot tub, grills). Open 24/7, year-round. It is a high luxury experience that makes you feel like you live in a resort. Guest access is somewhat restricted, but you just pay $15/wristband on the days that it's very busy.

The staff. The maintenance and cleaning staff are all really nice and do an excellent job of keeping the place clean and functional. If something breaks, it's usually repaired within a week or two. You can sense they care and want the tenants to have a top-notch experience. I truly hope they are being paid enough because they really do an amazing job.

The gym. Absolutely gorgeous gym with excellent equipment, rivaling Equinox. You want to spend time in there. The locker rooms have a sauna, hydro massage bed, and tanning booth. The new Alta gym also has a skiing simulator. Wild.

The tenants. Pretty much everyone I've come across is fun, attractive, and kind. Hang around the pool/hot tub on a weekend and you're guaranteed to make a ton of friends.

The location. The Giant supermarket and DGX are right downstairs. A TON of entertainment options are within 15 minutes walking distance.

The units. Most of the units are bi-level, which is really cool. It allows for pretty nifty ideas, for example hanging a hammock in your living room. It also breaks up the unit making it feel like there's more space than the square footage would suggest.

Cons: The NOISE. Oh god, the noise... I moved here from New York and let me tell you, I didn't think noise like this was even possible. Between the floor repairs (more on that in a moment), poor insulation, dirt bikes, general traffic, and loud music, it's really really noisy. I sleep in earplugs every night. My neighbor on one side is completely insulated - we don't hear each other even if we're blasting music. My neighbor on the other side though, it's as though there isn't even a wall between the two units; you can overhear normal conversations. The giant windows facing North 2nd street don't keep sound out either.

The floors. Some of the units have polished concrete with a polyurethane coating. This is by far the worst floor material choice known to man. The thing about poly is that it scratches pretty easily, and if the floors are scratched management offers to have them resurfaced every time someone moves in. You can't just re-coat the floor - the previous coat first needs to be taken off with an industrial floor grinder. Ask anyone who lives here how loud these machines are and they'll tell you... RIDICULOUSLY loud. On the advice of an attorney I bought a decibel meter to start documenting it just in case. You can hear the grinding from up to 5 units and 2 floors away. If you work from home you need to be prepared once a month for ~3 days. You will suffer. Management will offer the corporate unit or WeWork day pass. And then one day the grinding will stop. You will have peace and quiet again. And THEN you'll get hit by the fumes. The other thing about poly is that it's extremely smelly. So when they recoat a unit, that building's entire level smells for another day or two. Fairly toxic smell, and unlike noise you can't exactly escape it with earplugs/headphones. Management, please consider transitioning all the units to hardwood. I can't imagine the cost is any higher than the current approach.

Neutral: ~ Management. In short, issues can always be frustrating to deal with, but overall management is fair and reasonable. They try to accomodate tenants as best they can when there are issues, offering the corporate unit or a day pass to the WeWork if your unit is uninhabitable. I haven't moved out yet but heard there can be issues with the security deposit so will update this review in a couple months.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend living here and would return in the future to a different building/unit. You can absolutely have a solid 5-star experience here if you choose the right unit. From what I understand, Navona with the windows facing the courtyard is the way to...

I lived in the Schmidt Commons for slightly over two years from July 2015 until September 2017. Overall, it was a great experience and a beautiful place to live.

I'll begin with the things I'll miss the most, my apartment. I used to live in the Erbe building, and it was 1) an incredible space and 2) very reasonably priced compared to the rest of NoLibs (and even Fishtown) for the value I was given. I moved in when parking was including, so I never had to "pay" to park. I did lose parking for about a month in 2016 when my parking lot suddenly became off limits, but they resolved that as timely as they could which I was grateful for. I also had the greatest view of Center City that made my friends and family insanely jealous, though my downstairs lost the view due to the building across the street. No fault to the Schmidt Commons, but it was the one thing that always stunk.

I also loved the fact how dog-friendly the area is. I brought home over a year ago a 9-week-old English Bulldog, now fully grown, who had the best puppyhood. The fact a dog park was on the property and all the businesses were so dog-friendly made it a blast.

Location, location, location was a huge plus. El Camino became my go-to spot. Urban Village is incredible. The fact there is a WeWork downstairs! I also ended up going car-less while living here, so the ease to the El on Girard (and Spring Garden) made life a-okay for me (and ended up saving me money vs. car payment, car insurance, gas, tolls, parking, oil changes, etc).

The team at the Schmidt Commons were always good to me. Maintenance was super friendly and helpful. Leasing office always was friendly and loved my dog. They would also protect my packages if I weren't able to get it; which is great vs. having it in the hallway for someone to randomly take.

Perhaps best of all, I had some great neighbors who have become lifelong friends. I moved into this area knowing no one and ended up with many friends from my time in the Erbe building.

The only things I'd encourage the Schmidt Commons to improve on is their online billing system (auto-pay never worked for me, and I would make monthly payments just to find out weeks later it didn't go through even though it was successful) and to focus on fixing the elevators. It seemed every week at least one elevator is broken, and they take forever to go up only five floors (you start to think you live in a skyscraper by how long it takes to go up and down). Again, nit-picking there; but nothing to complain about.

If you're looking to live in this complex, especially in the Erbe building, I encourage it. Only reason I ended up moving was that I was ready to be a homeowner vs. renter, or else I'd have no intentions...

UPDATE IN RESPONSE TO MANAGEMENT'S REPLY - I gave a positive review on my move out because I didn't want to betray the front staff I spoke with who confided in me about the coverup and denial of what happened with the hot tub, but they're no longer employed there so now it feels safe. You should know they were terrified of Kristen Mauro, and I didn't want to see anyone fired, because I actually have morals and can sympathize with people's situations. Additionally, aside from Kristen repeatedly informing me that she couldn't connect me with anyone higher up, I left your office and Post Bros several voicemails without a response. The only response you saw fit to give, thru Kristen and before I posted this public review, was to remind me that I'd have to pay your legal fees if I lost in court (instead of taking accountability like human beings for burning me and 5 other people, and giving us a damn month of rent or something basic). But I get it, appearance is everything... I waited a while to write this because as much as I couldn't stand the management, the staff at the front were wonderful and didn't want to get any of them in trouble. During the year I lived at the Alta, myself and five other people received severe chemical burns on the lower halves of our bodies from a chemical pump failure in the rooftop hot tub. Our hair was burnt off, and our skin flaked and scabbed for weeks...the issue was so severe that our bathing suits were completely bleached. Management was immediately made aware, and the next day I was told by the front that texts had been sent internally identifying the issue (their chlorine pump failed and essentially released pure chlorine into the pool, and they didn't notice the alarm going off). Despite admitting it to their staff, myself and the other residents who were hurt were essentially gaslit when the manager called us and let us know that "they tested the water and nothing was wrong." They were afraid they'd have to credit us a month of rent, which is what we asked for, and instead reminded us that if we sued our lease required us to pay for their legal fees if we lost. Let that be a lesson to everyone who considers signing here - this place is not only unsafe, but it's also a money grab. They don't care about you or your safety. Now queue the prepackaged response...