Berkeley balcony collapse: Building damned in web reviews

Noisy, with a disintegrating ceiling and prone to homeless people sleeping in the stairwell, the Library Gardens complex where six Irish students died yesterday has received damning online reviews since it opened less than a decade ago.

A five-minute walk from Cal — the University of California — the apartment complex’s website promises a “premiere choice for convenient Berkeley apartments” and “a great option for Cal rental students”.

A host of reviews across other websites tell a different story, however, with many complaining about the noise and conditions within the complex. Some also questioned the safety of the property’s construction.

One reviewer said she would not recommend living in Library Gardens, and in her review in 2010 — written only a few years after the complex opened — described how a ‘gaping hole’ opened up in the ceiling on the fourth floor.

RELATED STORY: Updates: Six Irish victims of Berkeley balcony collapse named.

“Another gross/ unsightly thing while I was there: during winter, when it was raining a lot, there was a leak in the roof in the hallway on my floor (4th) ... which then turned into a huge gaping hole,” the reviewer, identified as ‘Nicole Y’ wrote on September 6, 2010.

“It was so unsafe /nasty looking, you could see the various layers of material in the ceiling sagging out of the hole. It took several months for them to fix it,” her Yelp review read.

Another resident, however, questioned the quality of the complex’s construction in a review submitted to apartmentratings.com in September 2008.

“This is a new apartment complex that was shoddily constructed. It was apparently constructed in a quarter [three months] and it seems like it. Everything is new, but everything is made from particle board and cheap materials. Handles have fallen off, doors have fallen off hinges,” the anonymous user had stated.

Several Yelp reviewers complained about homeless people in the complex stairwell, and of the unhygienic conditions found within the building’s corridors.

“Huge homeless problem in stairwells and laundry rooms. Fecal [sic] matter, condoms, articles of clothing in stairwells. Dog poop/pee in courtyards. Very unclean most of the time,” Chan N wrote on Yelp.

“One time my roommate even found his bike on a totally different floor. Another time his laundry was taken out of the machine, put into the hamper, and given to one of the hobos on the street,” wrote ‘Andrew O’.

A review posting under the name ‘Ricky O’ had a simple message for Yelp readers: “Please don’t move here. It’s noisy sometimes, but that doesn’t bother me. The apartment maintenance bothers me the most. It’s very nasty here,” he said.

“When my roommates and I first moved in, the apartment complex seemed well kept. Now there’s dog shit everywhere, garbage in the hallways, nasty washrooms, newly discovered roaches, and vomit and piss in the stairwells. I’ve even seen rats around the building,” his review read.

The negative reviews are not limited to Yelp — many posting on apartmentratings.com had similar complaints.

“The stairs are nasty and never cleaned. Homeless frequently are found living in the building. The windows are of poor quality, the community is noisy.

“Maintenance is extremely unreliable and building management is apathetic to many problems in the community and does not care to fix anything,” one review read.

“The place looks cute I’ll give them that, but everything else is HORRIBLE,” another reviewer warned.

“There have been so many problems in the apartment (broken microwave, leaking shower, coffee stains on the carpet when we moved in) and we have had to call multiple times to get management to do anything about it.. still waiting on them to come fix the shower.

“Management is the WORST. It was my mistake to ignore the bad reviews and move anyways,” the unnamed writer said.

‘DudleyB’ warned the complex is “so noisy, it is unbelievable”.

RELATED STORY: Updates: Six Irish victims of Berkeley balcony collapse named.