660 Washington Apartments

Apartment:
We rented a one bedroom/​one bath. It was nice w/​hardwood floors, carpet in the bedroom, granite countertops, stainless steal appliances, etc. Maintenance was always responsive if we ever needed anything. No complaints there. We considered renewing our lease, but they wanted to increase our rent by nearly $ 400.00/mo. No thank you.
Staff:
No complaints with staff, they were all kind. Charles was by far my favorite. I still talk to him every time I walk by. He is so sweet. :)
Location:
In the heart of China Town. If you know a thing or two about China Town, it smells like death. There is a homeless shelter around the corner, making it a little shady to walk on Bolyston at night. Ultimately, it was close to commons, downtown crossing and T station so it was a pretty convenient location.
Neighbors:
This apartment used to be strict on no students (not sure if that’s changed). A little background, my boyfriend is in a post-​graduate residency program and 30 years old. At first they were a little hesitant to allow him to live there. He had to physically show proof that he had previously worked for five years and was an established individual. Fast forward six months, we get a knock on our door at 1 AM from a random neighbor (that we had never met before) asking for a bottle opener. Classy. Overall, we didn’t hear much from our neighbors. I think we had to call down to the front once for a party being too loud at 2 AM on a Thursday.
Parking:
Although the complex itself does not offer parking, there is a public parking garage directly next door. You can actually access this garage through the complex without having to go outside, which is extremely nice in the winter. I parked my lexus in the garage at $ 350 A MONTH for someone to completely side swipe the car. Did they leave a note, may you ask? NO. Of course, the parking garage management could not do a thing. My suggestion to the complex, reserve the upper couple floors for long-​term parking residents. (I did not let this impact my overall rating)
Amenities:
They have a nice indoor pool and fitness area. We used the gym a handful of times, but never had time to take advantage of the pool.
Overall, I do believe these apartments deserve more than the 2 star rating they’re currently given. However, there are newer and nicer alternatives right around the corner.

Always smells like pot or smoke and occasionally loud music. The place is more like a college dorm hall than a luxury apartment. Don’t move here unless you want smoke reeking from your apartment with management that doesn’t care. The Staff is very nice and responsive though. Management not so much.

My car was vandalized and I was laughed at when I spoke to the manager about using the security system to help with finding the person responsible, he said «camera doesnt work, images very unclear». I am particullary concerned about my car and park directly under the security cameras intentionally. Keep this in mind when considering purchasing an appartment at this location. Your audi, mercedes, BMW, is NOT protected in any way and the security of the appartments at this location is probably no better. For certain you will know that your expensive car will not be protected inside of this garage.

This is not a place to call «home». It is more of a dormitory for undergraduates from overseas. The gym is nice, the lobby staff is great, but it is not for working people who need to sleep at night. And it is certainly NOT for nonsmokers. During the time that I lived there, my apartment reeked of cigarette and/​or marijuana smoke about 50% of the time. It was often as if someone was smoking inside my apartment. (Nobody ever did, but if you’re a nonsmoker you never should.) This issue was addressed with the management many, many times – to no avail.

Gym/​pool: It’s ok, nothing special.
Management: Worst people I’ve ever dealt with. They’re worse than used car salesmen; trying to squeeze every penny out of you by being sleazy. They come up with fees out of their asses and when you tell them that they’re being ridicilous they pretend to do you a favor and retract the fee.
One time, me and my room mate agreed mutually on three months lease instead of four with one of the ‘sales’ people to later find out that they hustled us for the fourth month (we had to pay for a whole month, even though we didn’t stay there) by never changing it in the lease, although they did it in their database on the computer. I won’t deny that it was our fault as well for not following through, but who does this in a «luxury» building?
Front desk staff: Mostly bad. Can never find my package in a tiny storage room. One time they looked for 5 minutes, then I went in and saw my package after 5 seconds of looking. They’re also not friendly, at all.
Maintanance: Takes forever for them to fix whatever problem is at hand. You’ll be calling them for several days.
Building itself: Looks clean and sleek. However, we found a mouse in the hall way. Floors 2 – 11 got flooded a few months ago (I believe almost everything was destroyed). Wall are paper thin, as well as the windows and the padding — you’ll hear the annoying stop light noise if your windows are facing the street. I lived on the 21^st floor.
Location: It’s in Chinatown. The only positive about the location is the subway, it’s right across the street. However, there’s a lot of homeless people around and it’s a pretty dirty area in general.
Apartments: The only above average part of the whole experience. Decent updated bed rooms and kitchens. However, having lived in 2 different apartments as a confirmation, the bathrooms get dirty really easy. You’ll have to clean every other day to keep up with the cleanliness.
All in all, you’ll do yourself a favor by not staying here.

The location and amenities make life OH-​SO convenient! After a Summer of apartment hunting in the downtown area, we were brought to Archstone Boston Common. Our leasing manager LV & the rest of the gentlemen working were wonderful, engaging, & were able to move us in early on the exact date & time we requested! We pay all of our bills on a special website for residents, and the staff in the lobby are always courteous and quick to assist. The entire team is amazing. Everywhere else in the area that we looked in was dirty, small, and not easy to utilize (time consuming job). I can breathe with all of the space, all appliances are stainless steel, energy saving, and I could not be more satisfied. Best apartment ever.

Beware rising rents. Lease terms increased more than 10% from 2009 to 2010, even though the leasing manager said initially that increases would be 5% at most. Who does that, especially in this economy?
The building itself is good, location is great, though not sure the price and value align. The rooms are on the small-​ish side, vis-​a-​vis comparables.
Maintenance is slow. It took them over half a year to fix the TV in the club suite. Thankfully, I never had a problem in my unit… can only imagine how much pain that would’ve been to fix.
Ventilation is bad in this building — in the sense that you will smell your adjacent units. My neighbors smoked, and it leaked right into my unit. Bad job of HVAC design.
One year and done for me. No renewal. There are plenty of choices in the Boston Common area, and rates are much better.