Vox on Two

Vox is a nice place to live within a lively community that produces a mixture of yuppies, dog lovers, families and singles just living their lives by trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents.
Vox sits right on route 2 and is easily accessible to get into, but leaving during rush hour is a nightmare. If you are leaving the building anywhere between 7:15AM-9: 30/​10AM or 4:30−7PM good luck, and even better luck if you need to travel to the left lane. Behind Vox, a hotel and apartment building are being built, so I can just imagine the traffic getting worse as the years go by. I think there should be some sort of access road allowing you to exit but I’ll continue to dream on.
Luckily, if you don’t need to drive you can walk to Alewife T station, which will take about 10 minutes. There is also a shuttle that’s transports from Vox to Alewife that is very convenient. In addition it’s a lovely walk to Spy Pond and trails in the area. The community is ideal for dogs and folks that enjoy the outdoors.
The building is super secure which is a great thing. You need a key to get into everything– gym, garage, movie theater, clubhouse, zen garden, etc. the reason being is there’s a $ 500 fee for additional amenities, so if you don’t pay, you don’t play.
1 of the 3 elevators seems to be out of service once every other week.
Parking is atrocious. There are only about 6 or 7 spaces out front for guest parking including one Zipcar space, and if you have an overnight guest you can pay $ 5/​night for them to park in the garage. What? The spaces in the garage are assigned and way too small. Some are labeled «compact» but most of the time oversized vehicles are parked in them leaving no room for you to open your driver’s side door. Many times I’ve had to crawl in through the passenger side. There are also many people that park in other people’s spaces and leave a scribbled note with a phone number to contact if you need them to move their car. It’s super irritating and inconvenient. One of my neighbors had the same problem with people parking over the line and had to crawl in through her trunk. I honestly can’t remember how much one assigned space costs, but any additional space is $ 165/​month.
Vox hosts a bunch of creative community events both kid and adult friendly.
The pool and hot tub are nice, but often overpopulated with unsupervised kids running wild while their parents are nowhere to be found so thankfully they created adult only hours.
There are a few nice BBQ’s during the summer but after seeing that food was being handled and served without gloves I decided not to eat.
Overall, I think it’s a nice and secure place to live. The units are beautiful with washers/​dryers, garbage disposals and dishwashers. The maintenance crew is awesome, hard working and super friendly. It’s on the costly side, but you are paying for having a Cambridge zip code and nowadays all apartment complexes are overpriced, but I wouldn’t consider Vox «luxury» apartments.

I would like to start by saying that we just moved out. I am reviewing this based on their advertising that they are a luxury community, and they certainly charge as such. If the price was right and luxury services were not advertised, the rating would be a solid 4 stars, maybe 4.5.
Leasing Process: VERY simple and straightforward. Being able to do everything online, including pay rent is great.
Renewal Process: They send you a note to set up a meeting with one of the office ladies to go over your renewal. I appreciate that they set up a meeting instead of just slipping you a piece of paper, check yes or no. I was disheartened though, when we had our meeting, to find out certain things.
*They would have gladly auto-​delivered my packages to my apartment had I asked for them to do so (the fact that I called every.single.time. I got a package was not indicative enough to warrant this offer before renewal)
*They would gladly watch my dog if she was not feeling well (she has lupus) either downstairs in the office or stop by my apartment to say hey. (was not mentioned once before renewal)
*The initial carpeting for this place was terrible! It snagged just by looking at it, and they acknowledged and understood that. To the point they are changing the carpets between tenants at no cost. In an effort to stay at Vox and not move, we simply asked that our carpet be replaced, and we would move our things out on our own dime for 7 days. This was our deal breaker. Why pay 3500 $ for an apartment with holey carpet?! They refused to replace the carpet for us. They are now replacing the carpet for the new tenants. That really made us feel valued. (note sarcasm)
Office — The ladies are quite friendly and always smiling when you walk in. One negative I can think of is whenever I brought what I thought was an issue to their attention, they seemed more defensive than receptive.
Example: Once the first storm of the winter hit, we had a ton of ice left over in the back of the building, on the pathway to the T, basically everywhere. I called the office to ask why the guys weren’t out clearing the ice on the one day where it was over 40 degrees and everything was slush. The response, «It’s been a long winter.» No, it had been a long 3 weeks and they had no problem ridding the ice from the front of the building. They did such a poor job and it was so dangerous it’s not even funny. I lost track of how many times I called /​mentioned this to the staff with nothing getting done. (the ice was preventing doors from closing causing a security issue and still nothing was done) We moved out on 2/​28, the place was still COVERED in ice. Front of the building was nice and clean though!
Parking: Garage only at 165 $ per month and 3 – 4 visitor spots out front. Overnight visitor parking available in the garage for 5 $ a night.
Actual Apartment: FANTASTIC!!! The set up was perfect, kitchen and appliances are top notch, huge bathrooms and closets. Superb unit.
Maintenance Staff: We have had 5 teams in the year that I lived there. I’m not sure if that says something about the company, Windsor, or about the people they hired but such high turnover does not sit well with me when it’s the people that have unrestricted access to my apartment.
Amenities: Generally pretty ok. It would have been nice if they made the pool bigger given how many units are in the building but I never had a problem getting a chair. That being said, I would not get in the pool. Too many parents letting their kids run around without proper swimpants (diapers), eating in the pool, etc. Gym is nice, but can get very busy. Main room and movie theater are nice also.
Dog park could use some serious maintenance, but it is nice to have.
Neighbors: Entitled assholes. We just moved to Melrose /​Malden and the attitude of our neighbors highly contributes to our quality of life satisfaction at our new place. People at Vox will literally walk into you because they can’t look up from their phone. And be wary when walking your dog, they have no idea what personal space is and think that when your dog is actively going to the bathroom is the right time for an introduction.
I know it doesn’t sound overwhelmingly positive, but living here really was pretty ok. Close to the T, quick trip into Boston, area in Cambridge was nice, being on the reservation was nice, but otherwise, nothing special.
Drop the price by 20−30% to compensate for the above and you have a stellar apartment complex. Keep the price where it is, and it’s ripoff central. I hope this feedback is taken as it’s meant to be, feedback, and not me hating on the place. I reiterate that if the price was dropped and the word «luxury» wasn’t used, this would be a 4 star complex, at minimum. Unfortunately, you need more than granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances to be considered luxury.

Apartments are spacious, chic, and the amenities are impeccably maintained. I love that I’m literally one flight of stairs from the common-​grills. This place is the real deal. Their website pictures are so representative of the amenities that I actually didn’t take pictures myself while touring. They were that spot on. They are not renders.
Vox is perfect if you need quick access to a highway, but also want to be within walkable T-​distance. I’m a resident physician working at a hospital outside of Boston, and Vox is perfect with its easy access to Rte. 2 West and MA-​128.
Like Erika S., I too can’t say enough about the ladies in the leasing office, especially Nicole DiStefano. She always has a smile on her face and made the whole leasing process go as smoothly as possible. Whether I’m walking through to snag some cookies and coffee, or needing to pick up a package, the leasing ladies make you feel like you are the most important person in the place.
My only complaint is about the parking. The visitor lot is tiny and having to park my car at Alewife while my wife (also a doctor) parks in the garage is a real drag when I suddenly get called into the hospital overnight. However, for people who reverse commute in the Boston area and only have one car, this is the best deal hands-​down.
I hope we can work out something with the parking though. Getting called in is a bit rough.

There’s a lot about this apartment complex that’s wonderful — the kitchen is beautiful — it has much more space than in the other apartments I’ve lived in, with granite countertops and an island with a small seating area, and very modern appliances. I would prefer a gas stove to the glass surface electric stove, but at least this is better than the electric stove in the apartment I was in eight years ago, with exposed elements that were hard to clean. For me, the most important thing is that the unit is designed for handicap access, which means, among other things, that the microwave oven is placed at a much lower level, so it can be reached by someone sitting down, or in a wheelchair, and there’s space for the wheelchair to maneuver between the stove, the sink, the refrigerator, and the island.
The living room is a bit small in this apartment, but I like having a deck, and there are big closets. There are storage units available, and I was able to get one right next to my apartment. Each floor has a trash/​recycle room with two chutes, one for each function — the cutes aren’t big, and I will be curious whether the chutes ever become blocked if someone tries to dispose of too big a bag of trash at a time.
There is just one key for everything but one’s mailbox — it’s an electronic key-​shaped piece of black plastic that one needs for the front door (except at the leasing office when it’s open), the apartment, the trash/​recycle rooms, one’s storage unit, the common rooms (including the one from which one can get to the pool), and getting from the garage to the main building (and vice versa). The keys (and locks) can get recoded as needed; somehow they were able to change the code on the lock to my storage unit so that my key worked with it. There’s a $ 100 deposit for each of these coded keys, so losing one would be a big deal.
The configuration is interesting — the apartment is on an inside corner, looking out on an attractive courtyard, and yet I think the units are arranged in such a way that one doesn’t seem to be looking directly into someone else’s window.
The building management and maintenance people are helpful and responsive, and security seems fairly good, though it’s a bit unnerving that in the lease there is a statement to the effect that the security is to protect the property, not the tenants (my guess is that this is the general priority in many buildings, but I haven’t seen anyone acknowledge it before). The leasing office is open business hours, and will sign for packages (and send email notification that a package is being held; one can request that the package be brought to the apartment door).
One of the main reasons this isn’t a five star review is the inadequate guest parking and the noise level so far. The parking problem is at least partly because the anti traffic zealots in Cambridge forced the building to have only one parking space per apartment; at least some people don’t have cars (it’s not a bad walk to Alewife, and there are two daily shuttle busses each way to Alewife), but for those who are older and need helpers, it’s not easy to hire helpers who are willing to walk from Alewife.
I moved in quite recently, and maybe the noise problem will improve, but there’s been music with loud bass thumping as late as 3 a.m. Saturday night, and a lot of the afternoon and evening today (Sunday). I may need a really heavy duty white noise machine. An additional noise problem is that I think they are using an astonishingly loud gas-​powered leaf blower (in the Zen Courtyard, yet) — it’s generally for a brief period but shouldn’t happen at all.
It also seems really inconsiderate that there aren’t handicapped parking places near the central elevator, and there isn’t a power assist on the very heavy doors between the garage and the apartment area — these are two modest changes that would make this building much more usable for someone disabled.