ANOVA uCity Square

Reasonably priced 1 bedrooms. Studios are abysmally small and overpriced. Laundry in every unit.

If you have upstairs neighbors, you will hear stomping, thudding, and every action done on the floor. Each apartment is essentially a large, echoing drum. Footsteps from upstairs reverberate and shake the entire unit, so you will be aware of every step your upstairs neighbor takes, even with headphones on. The apartment building does not require any portion of floor to be covered with carpeting/rugs, and will not intervene if your upstairs neighbor won't work with you. That being said, if you can manage to live on the 6th floor, you would only need to contend with noise from neighbors on either side. Walls are thin, but apartments are generally spacious so it is rare to overhear conversations/music from a neighbor. However, you will hear AND feel every footstep from above, especially if neighbors wear shoes indoors and do not put down any rugs/padding to dampen the sound.

Management is somewhat poor, tend to treat students and internationals poorly. Bad customer service. Management seems to always be trying to extract an extra 50$ here and there, especially after renewing a lease. Slow to respond when it suits them (3-5 days), but will try to blame tenant if they take more than 24 hours to respond. Management claims to set renewal prices with AI. Management also heavily relies on ChatGPT to respond to emails, can be rude and dismissive.

24h front desk is typically excellent. Some employees work harder than others. Mailroom is excellent, have not had any missing or lost packages in my entire time living here.

Location cannot be beat for access to Presby-- just a 2-3 min walk.
Amenities are excellent, especially for a University City property.
Parking is good, but I believe there may be a waitlist for a garage spot.
Secure bike storage is also available. Pool area is well maintained and clean. It's never been too loud or overcrowded. Gym is excellent and never too crowded. Common area amenities in the lobby, bar, and business center are quite nice, and never too crowded, can easily have a few friends over. Happy hour every Friday, but food and drink usually runs out within 20-30 minutes.

Electricity, heat, internet, etc charged separately and often ~300$/month. Management has raised the base price periodically since I have lived here. At move in 3 years ago, I paid closer to 175$/month.

Renter's insurance is required, but the building's associated renter's insurance is a scam. It does not include typical features of an actual renter's insurance and you cannot directly file a claim if something were to happen. Would advise getting a separate policy (e.g Progressive/Allstate/Geico) because it is similarly priced to (or marginally cheaper than) the "insurance" that the building offers. You can then submit your policy to management and they will be required to remove the extra fee for the property policy. However, management is somewhat incompetent at "verifying" outside insurance and will occasionally sneak the charge back on.

Occasional problems with elevators, (1-2x/year) but always fixed promptly.

Large spacious windows in every unit.

Great place to have a dog.

No pest issues in my experience.

Very bad management, giving tenant the run around.
No one is in the same page, from assistant manager to manager, to maintenance, to vendors.

I had a great experience living at ANOVA. It is a quiet apartment, located very close to HSB. There are great amenities and I feel safe living here. The only downside is that it is very expensive to live here for the relative space you are given but overall I would live here again.

ANOVA is pricier than most nearby apartments, but walking to HSB takes <5 minutes. I valued proximity and cleanliness above all else, sacrificing sunlight and storage space. Theres a free coffee machine and amazing gym. I think if I had picked a unit in a higher floor than 3rd, I think the sunlight issue wouldn't be a big deal. Rent was 1795, utilities are $30-40 (water and electric), but a base $125 fee for amenities and $40 of other small fees (trash, "processing fee", etc.) bumps the total to about $2000.

Convenient location to campus and affordable compared to other locations in Ucity. The studio is small, but has a great layout and I am able to store all of my clothing. It even has a washer and dryer in unit!

Anova review

ANOVA has been a great place to live. The apartment is spacious, the appliances are modern and work well, the building has great amenities (pool, quiet study area, free coffee and tea, free happy hour every week), and management is responsive and friendly. There is also super fun programming every couple weeks that's all free, like wine and painting, goat yoga, movie nights, charcuterie making, etc.

My only complaints are that the AC unit is loud and if your apartment faces the street you can hear a good amount of street noise.

The management at Anova is awful; I lived right below the A/C condenser unit and my apartment would vibrate along with the unit constantly 24/7. When I submitted a maintenance request it took them over a month to initially get back to me. I started communicating the issue with a member of the maintenance team but there was no resolution for months. Finally I requested rent abatement because I could not sleep or study in my room which got denied. Ended up being transferred to another unit which had not even been cleaned out for my use. Asked them if I could terminate my lease due to this issue and was again denied. Also they will charge you $500 each time you don't properly flatten your cardboard boxes (which I'm pretty sure must be illegal).

ANOVA has been pretty good so far. The pool and outdoor lounge area is nice, the gym is clean and has plenty of machines, weights, room, etc. However, the package room can get chaotic and you're not always notified when you have a package. The lobby is beautiful but can get loud, especially when there are kids running around which is about 30% of the time. My biggest complaint is that the air conditioning is very loud and the walls don't shield you from street noise, even on higher floors. There are some great cafes, restaurants, ice cream shops, and other fun spots nearby and the area feels safe. Overall, I would definitely recommend ANOVA but it's not perfect.