Housing Reviews 2017: East Campus (Townhouses)

View from the living room – it’s no highrise, but it’s pretty nice!

Housing selection starts tomorrow for Columbia seniors, and the EC townhouses will be some of the first suites to go. Here’s a Bwog review of them, for those of you deciding between a townhouse and a highrise suite.

Location: 70 Morningside Dr.

Nearby dorms: EC tower, Wien, Prezbo’s house.
Stores and restaurants: Hamilton Deli, Arts and Crafts Beer Parlor, Subsconscious, Flat Top, Friedman’s, Appletree Market, a couple of halal carts.

Cost: standardized to $9,292/year

Amenities:

Bathrooms: One in each suite, with a counter and sink, toilet, and shower. Both the toilet and shower are separated off with doors, which makes sharing with a few other people pretty easy.
AC/Heating: Yes! Both are pretty intense, but you can turn the radiator on and off.
Kitchen: One in each townhouse; really big, tons of counter space, and includes a microwave!
Lounge: Also one in each townhouse, possibly the largest individual suite living rooms/common rooms of any dorm.
Laundry: In the basement of the highrise building – aka FAR.
Computers/Printers: In the lobby of the highrise building – also far.
Fire escapes: Nope.
Bike Storage: There are a few bike racks in the courtyard.
Gym: The tower has two cardio rooms, on floors 8 and 16.
Intra-Transportation: It’s stairs all the way down.
Hardwood/Carpet: Hardwood in the lounge; carpet in bedrooms of some suites and hardwood in others.
Wifi: The usual CUIT wifi.
Bonus: The courtyard is both a blessing and a curse – it’s nice when the weather is warm, and shitty when the weather is less than warm.

Room variety:

10 townhouse 4-person suites with 4 singles.
12 townhouse 6-person suites with 4 singles and 1 double.
28 townhouse 6-person suites with 6 singles

Numbers:

4-person suites (4 singles) 2016 cutoff 30/713; 2015 cutoff 30/1823
6-person suites (4 sgl / 1 dbl), 2016 cutoff 30/2803; 2015 cutoff 30/2300
6-person suites (all singles), 2016 cutoff 30/2333; 2015 cutoff 30/1688

Bwog recommendation:

EC townhouses are a prime option for senior groups looking for a space to host parties with some modicum of privacy. The common spaces in these suites are without a doubt some of the nicest Columbia offers. But if you’re considering moving into a townhouse rather than going into the tower, you should definitely consider whether you’re willing to walk up several flights of stairs a day and traipse across a courtyard to do your laundry.

Resident opinions:

“The setup of the townhouse is comfortable – there’s just so much space.”
“If it’s cold or snowy, that extra 20 feet from the townhouse to the lobby feels like a lot.”
“Some days I never go out, because everything I need is here.”
“Living with stairs is a pain in the ass – especially when you’re carrying groceries, or when you’re moving in.”
“The huge kitchen and bar space is really nice. There’s a lot of room for prep work.”
“You can get into EC as an underclassman or a Barnard student through an SIC [Special Interest Community], since a lot of townhouses are SICs.”

Gallery: