I am thinking of moving into the Hancock Sq. Apartments on 2nd St. about the Standard Tap in Northern Liberties. Does anyone have any experiences or opinions to share?

We just moved in a few days ago, but so far the management has been responsive, and the units seem well-built. I love the fact that everything is new and clean. The layout is nice, and despite the small living room and kitchen, we seem to have plenty of space. The concrete-block construction means you barely hear your neighbors. The only annoying noise has been construction from about 7am-3pm. The whole site will be under construction for another year at least. Overall, moving here has been a positive experience.

Thanks for your opinion. I'll be your neighbor starting October 1. I am signing the lease tomorrow.

I am considering moving into these apartments and would greatly appreciate any feedback on them. Does anyone have any major issues/concerns about living there. I am looking for a one bedroom place in that price range and need to be able to park 2 cars. It seems like a good fit for me since parking looks to be relatively easy in area.

I would really appreciate any positive or negative feedback!

I like living here so far, save for a few growing pains with the construction. The only thing that bothers me a little bit is the noise. It's weird, but there are a couple spots in the apartment where I can hear my neighbors' full conversations when they're speaking at a normal level. I can also clearly hear them walking around in heels and watching tv, etc. I can tell what show they're watching, the lyrics to their music, etc, and I don't think the volume levels are very high at all. Odd. I thought the cinderblock walls would cut down on this, but apparently the walls are only partially cinderblock.

It's really no big deal, however, and I don't regret moving here at all. It's got a lot of character and the location and parking situation couldn't be better. I can't wait 'til the retail and other buildings go up. Anyone know the timetable for this?

I have to agree somewhat with the comment about the noise. I don't hear the conversations of my neighbors, but my unit is near the elevator, and I can hear it clearly - very annoying. I can hear people when talking in the hall, but since neighbors have been very cool, noise is not too much of a problem so far. But I concur that I would have expected it to be much quieter.

The only issue I have about Hancock Sq. likely will not pertain to you, but in my case, the construction for my unit was far from finished when I moved in a month ago. I am still waiting for major things to be fixed. Actually, nothing has been addressed since I moved in. The equalizing factor is that I have been wthholding rent. Not the best situation, but I hope to have this rectified shortly. We'll see. (The construction outfit, Driscoll, seems to have cut a lot of corners and screwed up a lot. I hope the repercussions are not felt in the long term. But I have my doubts.)

Parking is pretty easy - even during nights when a lot of people come to restaurant and bars.

I dont get it. It seems like every Blatstien building in No Libs is noisy. Since they are mostly new (or new conversions) why not insulate better??

Sam (or any builder) does it really cost that much more $$$ to make new construction more quiet (Liberties Walk and Hancock specifically)

I suspect this noise, mostly voices, is mainly travelling through the heating ducts. I don't know how one would insulate concrete floors and cinderblock walls anyhow. Noise does tend to resonate quite a bit. There is not a lot of wood to absorb the sound.

For what it's worth, I never hear any footsteps.

I thought the same thing, that the noise was coming through the heating ducts, until I did a little more investigating. Where there is drywall there is little to no insulation. I had to move my bed from against the wall to near the middle of the room because of the noise. As for the footsteps, I think I only hear them becuase my neighbor wears big hefty wooden clogs or heels or something. Maybe she's Dutch, I dunno.

I also sympathize with thephillynative about the construction. I'm still waiting for things to get done, and I've been here since the middle of August. I didn't hold out on rent, though. Wish I would have.

Hey, Malloy, remember when I said there'd be problems with these buildings, too?
I feel for you guys. I lived in a renovated Blatstein building that had TERRIBLE problems, and got the hell out, and when the topic of these buildings came up months ago, those of us who'd had the "Tower" experience knew what would happen.
The concrete isn't the noise problem, in fact that is the only reason it's not worse. But I wouldn't expect any insulation behind the drywall because there wasn't any in the building I lived in, either. The cinderblock is probably a good conductor of sound and as it gets colder, those windows will conduct the cold as well as the cinderblock because it divides the units and is exposed on the outside of the building with a facade covering it that won't do anything to insulate.
If you're lucky, plumbing won't be a problem. The sewer systems are already too overloaded in NL, and during heavy precipitation, they tend to back up and in the building I lived in, the first floor flooded, with, of course, sewer water, every time. One unit even had it spew out of the plumbing.
Go to http://pub50.bravenet.com/forum/4226496069/ the northernliberties neighborhood message board and type "tower" "blatstein" "hancock" and see what's been going on before you moved to NL.

__________________


http://www.mvprolapse.com/dysautonomia.html
http://www.ndrf.org/
http://www.sjogrens.org/syndrome/

http://www.bethbrennan.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...63&ref=profile
http://www.myspace.com/o1o1o1o1