It’s old, no dishwashers or garbage disposal (which is super basic!), bug and rat issues, packages get stolen all the time since there is no 24-hr concierge, no staff available on the weekends

The apartment is in an older building and has its pros and cons but you can't beat the location. 10 minute walk to class, across the street from the grocery store, and steps away from the metro. If you prioritize your commute this place is worth checking out.

Don’t have a single negative thing to say.
Live super close to school (7 min walk) in a safe area.
Have not had any major problems with anything in the apartment.
The small things that have come up are dealt with extremely promptly by the management team. The main apartment manager, Amanda, is super nice and helpful

Older building, so nothing fancy. But good sized apartment for rent. Lots of light.

I live in a studio at Elise Apartments. My rent is about $1750 and it includes utilities. Total square footage is around 475.

PROS: very close to most things you need like school, groceries, gym, metro; maintenance is very good, they usually fix any issues within a few hours; located on blue/orange/silver metro line. I have a ton of closet space, there is a huge walk-in that is pretty nice.

CONS: very expensive for what you get; laundry is in the basement of the building; air conditioning is not very good in the summer; the ventilation in the kitchen kind of sucks; old building.

General notes: Don't live on the first two floors--I know of 3 people who have had issues with bugs on the lower floors of this building. Don't expect much from the building--there are no "bells and whistles." The gym and the pool advertised on the website are actually at another building owned by this company (the Savoy) which is about a 5-10 minute walk.

Compared to the other buildings in Foggy Bottom, Elise is fine. However, DC is a small city with really good public transit. You can find much nicer apartments in other neighborhoods if you're willing to have a modest commute.

Maintenance is decent about fixing problems but you have to communicate with the manager to get a hold of them. The manager is good about minor issues, but really difficult to work with on bigger problems that require explaining things to her. The building has a lot of issues and I basically went without a wall for two weeks while they repaired water pipes (and they did not comp my rent). The other staff is very nice and they do try to bring packages to your door at the end of the day, but packages tend to sit in the main lobby for most of the day so I don't recommend sending stuff to this address (I have had a package stolen). Basically I have stayed in my apartment for the convenient location but plan to move out immediately after school.

The location of the building is great; 10 minute walk to GW Law, 1 minute to Foggy Bottom metro, 5 minutes to Whole Foods/Trader Joe's.

The building itself is not so great. It is old and the management company does not take good care of it. It's one of those buildings that college kids will live in no matter what, so there is no reason to go above and beyond when caring for the property.

The mail situation is terrible. There is no security; they literally place packages in the main lobby and anyone passing by could take your package if they wanted to. I have had several packages show as "delivered," yet I never actually received them. I assume they were stolen from the main lobby.

They have laundry in the basement. They charge $2.20 per wash and $2.20 per dry, so I usually end up paying about $8-12/week just to do laundry. To me, that is way too expensive for basement laundry.

Don't be mislead by the photos of a gym and a pool on the website. Those are available to you but they are in a different building which is about a 10 minute walk from Elise.

The Kitchen is microscopic. I have about 2 sq/ft of counter space.

If this building was situated almost anywhere else, it rent would easily be 15-20% cheaper. They take advantage of GWU.

The only thing that the management company has done right is hiring Yaza as a building manager. I can tell they they give her next to no resources, almost no help, and she is terribly overworked. Be that as it may, she is still able to keep the ship afloat.

The only reason I stay is the location of the building in proximity to school and FB metro.

The rent is lower than other apartments. Another advantage is its location. It is near Wholefoods, trader joe's, metro station and many schools. Besides, it does not have pest problem. But it is really an old building. It does not have gym or swimming pool. Every package leaves at the lobby. No printer, studying room...

It's an old building that is overpriced. The walls are thin, so I can here everything my neighbors are doing. The building is across the street from GW hospital, so it's noisy. And management is unfriendly.

Living in the Elise has been one of the worst decision of my life. It began as a mildly uncomfortable situation and has gradually gotten to this low point; I daily regret staying as long as I have, which is only a little over two years.

The building is old. The elevators are often broken, the AC/heat units are ineffective, the windows are thin. In the winter the hot water often only lasts for a few minutes before becoming cold, and even when hot water is available the temperature fluctuates wildly during use (without actually being adjusted by the knob) which leads to either lukewarm or scalding experiences. Three separate times my apartment has been flooded, each due to a different cause. I understand it's an older building and these issues can be expected, but these problems are monumental when dealing with poor management. Another note about HVAC: like many older buildings, the units only offer either heating or cooling, depending on the season. However, at The Elise, the management often waits until there has been months of very hot temperatures before enabling the AC, yet often turns on the heat while temperatures are still very high.

The building has many young tenants which can lead to occasional noise situations. I am young myself and often don't mind, especially on the weekends, but there have been frequent occasions where residents have felt the need to call the police to quiet parties during the week. In a university area this probably is difficult to avoid, but some management handles it better than others.

Speaking of the management, they are often unresponsive and slow. The management regime has changed multiple times since I've been here. It has ranged from incompetent to patently rude. The current manager is very confrontational and has the tendency to view every situation as a liability to be diffused first, and a problem to be solved second (and a person in need third, if at all). Most of the hundreds of dollars in property damage that resulted from the multiple leaks I've experienced went uncompensated due to the hostility of the management. If you have any problems expect a few weeks for a resolution.

Complaints about the noisy weekday parties often resulted in nothing. The building's garage, which costs over $200 a month, is often full of illegally parked cars that make entry and exit impossible, effectively denying access to the lease holders (don't expect any sort of compensation from management that will fight tooth and nail to keep a nickel). Once again, complaints to management do not lead to results. The 24-hour emergency phone number for the building leads to a call center. My only two experiences with this number have resulted in conversations that either were not helpful or ended with the phone being hung up on me.

There are no amenities. Laundry is expensive considering the old machines; $2 to wash, $2 to dry. When I began living here residents of The Elise were allowed to walk to The Savoy, another apartment building owned by the Gelman company, to use their gym or pool. I do not know if that is still the case. Regardless, I have not availed myself of those services because the Savoy is a pretty inconvenient distance up New Hampshire avenue.

Do yourself a favor and avoid this building. Avoid the company, avoid the people, avoid the loud residents. Above all, avoid the (mis)management. You may find the price reasonable (after speaking to acquaintances I find the prices to be slightly below the area average), but the hidden costs and the experience itself are burdens much harder to bear than an extra $50/100 rent, especially if that marginal increase is for a building from a decade when radio shows weren't the norm.

Finally, while I will admit writing this review has been therapeutic, I want you to know I am not doing this to spite anyone, I really just don't want anyone else to go through the nightmare I have went through because of this building. Foggy Bottom has plenty of