Apartment Review for The Zenith - Baltimore, MD

The Zenith has some great qualities. It is close to downtown, the building is great looking and it has 24 hour security. There is a great lobby and parking is available in the building. It has all the usual stuff: Small gym, business center, TV/ party room. There is a fine restaurant in the building. Oriole park is very close. It is close the UM hospital so it is good for students. It does have some very annoying problems. 1. The heating system is so loud. When it kicks in, it is tough to watch TV. It is just so loud. It heats well, but it is annoying. Also the placement of the washing machine is very awkward. There is a 2’x2’ metal grate sloppily screwed into the living room wall for ventilation from the laundry room. You can clearly see electrical wiring and metal studs through it; not very attractive for guests to see when they walk in. It also makes the laundry machine very loud. I just try to do my laundry during the day, but it still bugs me. 2. There have been numerous false fire alarms. One weekend I was evacuated 3 times. I was very upset and was slightly sore from walking down 10+ levels of stairs each time. Each time time, I was told by the property manager that “It was no big deal”. It was a big deal to me. They are responsible for maintaining the life safety systems. These systems are here to save my life. After the first false alarm, almost no one bothered to evacuate the building. What if it was real? I do not want to choose between burning to death and jumping out the window. The fire alarm is meant to save peoples lives and 3-4 false alarms in 1 weekend is a shame. 3. The elevators. They only have 2 elevators for the entire building of 20 floors. They do not have a freight elevator, so when someone moves in, you are down to one elevator to get in and out of your place. After months and months of problems, they sent a memo out saying that they were shutting down each elevator for 4 entire days. They tell us to expect long delays. That is horrible. I know they could have the elevators worked on after hours or on weekends, but they are cost cutting. 4. Car break ins. There have been numerous car break-ins in the secure parking garage in the building. They have happened on more than one occasion and attracted so much concern that the building send out a memo and hired an extra security guard. There have been no break ins since, but I am sure that eventually the security guard will be cut and the break-ins will come back. Hopefully I am wrong… 5. The garage door. This thing seems to break all the time. I guess it is not a big deal since they can just roll it up by hand. It is just another example of them not having it fixed right away. Also it seems that car thieves could enter the parking garage when this garage door is broken. I just hate the thought of my car being parked all night with no protection. Again, the Zenith is not all bad. I just expected more considering the cost of rent and the image that they build. At times I wish I would have chosen to live at The Crescent or Spinnaker Bay in Harbor East. They are the similar in price, but are closer to Harbor East (the restaurant and nightlife center of the city). The Zenith has not done that bad, but the items listed above need work. The Zenith staff is very good at planning social events and pet contests, but elevators usage, fire alarms, and making the parking garage safe should be their top priorities.