Latham

I’ve had next-day maintenance here, and the team is friendly and knowledgeable. They even offer booties when they come in, which I appreciate after seeing Philly sidewalks. Free laundry helps make up for not having a machine in the apartment, and the machines are big and good quality. There are more on other floors, easy to reach by the stairs, but I’ve rarely found my floor’s machines full. WiFi was pretty bad at first, then improved to B+ after the network work in January, which is plenty for what most of us use it for. The gym at 1700, just up the block across the street, is good enough that I dropped my Planet Fitness, uh I mean Equinox membership. It’s missing a stepmill and hip abductor/adductor machine, but otherwise does the job. It even has a solid rower. Apartment gyms are often just a couple of basement treadmills that nobody uses. This one has a good range of working machines and plenty of tenants using it. Our softball team would crush your apartment’s team. It’s a quiet building in one big way: the street definitely isn’t. The Latham is downtown, and 17th is one of Philly’s busiest streets, so light sleepers will want good earplugs for weekend naps and nighttime. There are honks, karaoke bus revelers, buskers trying to earn money, and people loudly expressing every kind of emotion. That’s part of city life. If you come ready to enjoy the energy and bring earplugs, you’ll probably like living here. This definitely isn’t the suburbs. Pearl’s resident events surprised me in a good way. I didn’t expect to care about trivia or game nights, but they can help neighbors become friends. Pearl Properties has a Resident Experience department with a small team of likable, accommodating people who run them. They’ve even made sure there are vegan options for me. The hot water at the Latham is fast and hot, which nearly sealed the deal when I was apartment hunting. At other places I tested how quickly warm water came from the tap, and the best result before this was “meh.” The rent is relatively reasonable, it’s right in the heart of the city, and I haven’t had pests, fire alarms, or the many other problems that make apartment hunting daunting. I’d recommend the Latham, especially if you’re the sort of person who likes telling people about a good find. And man, the hot water. (As they say, “I can handle the cross, it's the splinters I can't stand”)