Kenmawr Apartments

I moved to Pittsburgh from the UK in 2013 and lived at Kenmawr Apartments for the duration of my five-year stay in the city.

Location: The building is very conveniently located for someone without a car. It is a 5-10 minute walk from several supermarkets (Giant Eagle, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Target), and close to the restaurant/bar/shopping areas in Shadyside and Bakery Square. Thanks to its proximity to Fifth Ave, Centre Ave, Penn Ave and the East Busway, there are great bus connections to... most parts of the East End, as well as Downtown, the South Side and the Waterfront. Additionally the Carnegie Mellon shuttle stops right outside the building. For those with cars, there is on-street parking or the option to pay for a reserved indoor or outdoor parking space, but this is very expensive ($102/mo for 2018-19).

Apartment: The apartment has a huge common living area and decent sized bedrooms, with ample storage. The kitchen has everything you could reasonably want from a kitchen (including a dishwasher!) and the bathroom has everything you could reasonably want from a bathroom. In the five years I lived here I only rarely encountered bugs, even in the height of summer. Noise from other apartments is minimal, but if you live in any large apartment building then you shouldn't expect complete silence.

Amenities: The building has a surprisingly well equipped gym (which I used far less than I ought to have done), a community room, undercover bike racks in the garage, storage lockers, and laundry on each floor.

Staff: Most of the building staff are very friendly and helpful. First and foremost, the property manager, Mimi, has always bent over backwards to make living here a positive experience and I'm very grateful for the huge effort she has put in over the last five years. The door attendants, Greg and Julian, are both great, as are the garage attendants Dennis, Mike and David. There are other staff who I didn't get to know as well, and they're great too!

Maintenance: I have always had good experiences with the maintenance staff, who usually respond promptly about issues requiring immediate attention (such as leaks) and are very polite, helpful and competent. The building is showing signs of age, so if you live here for a few years then you can expect to call out maintenance several times during your stay, but at least rest assured that any problems that do arise will be solved.

Thank you for a great five years! Read More

When I moved into the Kenmawr apartments, I was slightly concerned about the maintenance department being like my last place, but I was very wrong. My dishwasher stopped working soon after I moved in and I called maintenance and it was fixed the next day! They even decided to install a new dishwasher since the maintenance guy mentioned that it was an older unit.