Tenant Reviews for 1642 E 56TH ST

STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!! We resided at Windermere for 2 years and it was absolutely nightmarish. We experienced a burglary committed by someone living in our Blace, and when we brought evidence to mgmt, they completely disregarded the situation. The same individual also removed our laundry from the dryer and disposed of it down the chute. Once more, mgmt turned a deaf ear to our requests for assistance. This person had "changed" units multiple times previously (what kind of tenant does that in an Aad complex? Why wouldn't they just leave? So they can continue targeting fresh residents, obviously.) We departed at the earliest opportunity possible. We had reason to believe mgmt was complicit in the theft since maintenance staff were constantly in our unit addressing our faulty kitchen plumbing and had unrestricted access when we were absent. You'd genuinely be better off living in the worst parts of the ------ than calling this location home.

Windermere was a great place to live. Quiet, large units, clean, but the tenants that have been moving in lately do not care about the building. My neighbor leaves her trash, old furnishings, and bedding in the middle of the hallway. I have alerted the manager about this and yet this activity still goes on.

AVOID THIS PLACE!! We lived at Windermere for 2 years and it was a living hell. We were burglarized by a neighbor on our floor and the management refused to do anything about it when presented with proof. This person also stole our laundry from the machine and stuffed it down the garbage chute. Again, management ignored our pleas for help. This person had "relocated" floors several times in the past (who does that in an apartment complex? Why not just move out? So they can always have new victims to target, that's why.) We ended up leaving as quickly as we could. We suspected the management had something to do with the burglary because maintenance was constantly in our apartment fixing our broken kitchen pipes and had access to our apartment when we weren't home. You will be safer living in the heart of the ------ than you would here.

Good building. I've lived in Windermere for a few years now and it's been great. Positives: safe building (with doorman), well-maintained, responsive staff (building manager, doorman, maintenance, etc), laundry room on each floor, small fitness center, lot/garage parking available for a fee, close to public transit, near grocery store/drugstore/restaurants, walking distance from the University of Chicago campus (daytime and evening buses stop near building), and close to the lakefront path. Negatives: old building (I've had two leaky ceilings and several clogged drains), no central air (just an AC window unit and a steam heater), no dishwasher (not in studios but multi-bedroom apts have them), at least one elevator gets out of order (usually fixed quickly), we have lost hot water on occasion (but fixed quickly), and limited street parking. Overall, Windermere is a great building and one of the nicer ones in Hyde Park. It is a bit pricey, but the accommodations are much better than a comparable place in a cheaper building, I suppose everything is priced to market. I recommend Windermere.

I decided to move up a little bit in the Hyde Park rental world without moving out of Hyde Park, and I think the Windermere is a great balance of South Side living with North Side fixings (and prices.) While it's not a cheap building, and I think rent starts around $900 for a studio here, it's definitely worth it for me, especially considering how much more I'd be paying for this kind of place anywhere else. The good: - My studio is spacious, with lots of closets and a separate eating and dining alcove. - All of my interactions with the staff have been overwhelmingly courteous, professional, and positive. I have a good relationship with the building manager, who has effectively and efficiently resolved any problems that have arisen. - The building is in a safe location, with easy access to three major bus routes (I don't own a car), a University shuttle, and well-lit streets. - The entrance to the building is pretty grandiose, and the hallways were redone quite well. I often get "whoa" comments when family and friends come to visit. - There's a bit of every walk of life here: young families, retirees, students, University employees, you name it. It's everything I like about Hyde Park in one building. Things that could be improved: - Elevators are wacky and slow. - The fitness room isn't inspiring and I don't know how to work the TV. - Parking is expensive or hard to find. - Windows could be updated - My neighbor likes to smoke, so I run an air purifier.

I have lived here for two and a half years and I absolutely love it. I have lived in other MAC buildings and I can definitely say that the attention I get here at Windermere is superior to other buildings. We have coffee in the lobby every morning and pastries the first Wednesday of every month. There are holiday parties and summer barbecues allowing residents to mingle and form a community. We have a building manager on-site who is helpful, friendly and available when we have concerns. The front desk staff is pleasant enough for the most part and the building is quiet and well constructed. Parking is an issue though. Street parking is pretty bad during the summer because people will park near here and walk to the beach. It is also very bad at certain times of day depending on when people go to work. Having a school down the street complicates things more because there are several areas where you can't park during school hours which means getting up to move your car at 7am or risk being ticketed. Garage parking is too expensive in my opinion so I take my chances on the street. Overall, this building is clean, quiet, welcoming and feels safe. MAC has stepped up their game and have done a great job with this building. I'm currently looking for a new place because the rent is a bit high for me now but I'm very disappointed about that. I really don't want to leave. I consider this my home. Hope this review genuinely helped someone make a decision!

I haved lived at the Windermere for 1 year and am moving out. It is a safe building and the management and front desk clerks are nice and helpful. The apartments are very old and dated. The walls are 1000 layers deep with paint (not smooth, chipped through out the apt). The mirrors in the rooms, the edges are painted on, no one bothered to tape when painting. I was promised new carpet, when I moved in they said that it was too expensive to replace and it was just cleaned. The counter in the kitchen is chipped, the ceramic floor in the baths are chipped,clumps of dry paint everywhere. The windows shake constantly, regardless to how I try, they remain filmed, dirty and off track. The floors are not leveled. Many closets are painted over and difficult to open. The elevators are slow to open and close and break frequently. The laundry facility is clean, the dryers are set not to dry with one cycle (regardless of the loadsize). Bring your quarters, there isn't a pay card available. The rent is comparable to any upscale highrise, however the quality is not. Windermere apt sizes are nice, but no better than any downtown highrise and surprisingly in the same price range. If I am going to pay close to $1700. for a 2 bedroom, then I want some of the bells and whistles that do along with paying that amount of money. This building is just not worth the rent!

I lived at Windermere from 2007-2008. On the whole it was very quiet. The only time it was noisy was when they were doing construction on my floor, in which case the sound of jack hammers was not infrequent. The gym on the top floor was adequate. 3 Treadmills, a bike and an all in one gym. The roof leaked the entire time I was there, even after they repaired it and gave it a new paint job. The gym has a TV but it only gets roughly 3 channels, one of them being the building security camera. The staff was very friendly. I knew everyone by name and would chat with them when I had time. This started to change as I lived there longer and the staff began to turn over, bust still everyone was nice enough. I never had any concerns with safety while I lived here. The building has a doorman at the front who scares people away, though my friends who never lived there had no problem getting in and were never asked any questions. They were also good about letting the pizza guy up. Parking was available in an attached underground garage while I lived there, though I understand that the construction of a new high rise will remove this option. Still, parking was never a problem as there's usually plenty of space on the street within a 3 block radius. In general, I had some issues with management. Before I moved in, I made clear to management that I didn't want to go above 1100 on rent and we settled on an apartment, expecting to sign the lease when I moved in. A week later I received an email from the property manager asking if I wanted to move to a higher floor and I said sure thinking it would be under 1100. I didn't find out about the price differential until move in day, but by then it was too late and there was nothing I could do. It was my mistake, but still somewhat underhanded. Other times, myself and other residents complained about noise and dust from renovations, but management never seemed to care. On top of that, the renovations took 4 months to complete instead of 6 weeks promised. Ultimately, I choose Windermere because I moved to Hyde Park from outside the state and only had an afternoon to find an apartment. Windermere was safe, clean, decently maintained, and within 2 blocks of the grocery store, a half dozen restaurants (try the Snail, it's excellent!) the 6 bus to downtown, the 171 bus to campus, and the Metra to downtown. I left Windermere mainly because it was overpriced and I could find all of those things for significantly less. Bottom Line: It's a good place to live for a year, but if you have time to look around you can definitely find something cheaper in the neighborhood.

Windermere House use to be a beautiful historial building, until MAC Properties took over. Have done a lot of unnecessary renovation taking away the historical beauty of the building. Nor does MAC cares about its tenants, just high price rent.

I've been here for over a year, and really liked it when I first moved in--- but that was before the newest management and all the construction. They've gotten a lot stricter about smaller things (like you can't take carts / bikes / dogs / basically anything but yourself out the front entrance, even if the back entrance is basically clogged with construction workers / construction items, boxes, etc. OR people moving in and out) Honestly, it's annoying waiting for the elevator near the smelly trash receptacle area for 15 min. and it's just not safe going out somewhere where there's large heavy items and trucks moving things in and out. When I try to explain this, they don't seem to care all that much. I think another commenter wrote about this earlier, but cigarette smoke also bothers me... and you'd think that wouldn't be a problem in a nice apartment. Sometimes my hallway smells like smoke and even WORSE, sometimes my neighbor (or whoever) must smoke in their apartment, and my bathroom and closet area fills with the smell of smoke---- it's really disgusting, not healthy (talk about lung cancer...) , and now I probably smell like a smoker. I have to leave my small bathroom window open to clear out the smell, as there is no other real source of ventilation in the apartment. I asked management about smoking policy once... but apparently there's nothing they can do about that. Oh well.