It’s that time of the year again: spring everlasting winter! And that can mean only one thing—the annual installment of Bwog’s housing reviews.  Today, we bring you the lowdown on the most aptly named dorm on campus: Broadway.

Location: 556 West 114th Street. Housing, facilities, and WikiCU will say 2900 but 556 is what you want to tell the delivery guy.

  • Nearby dorms: Hogan, Ruggles, Carman
  • Stores and restaurants: MoWi, BoSchwo, Amir’s, Haagen Daaz, Starbucks, Nussbaum & Wu, pretty much all of Broadway

Cost:

  • $7,640 (same as McBain, Wien, Schapiro, Furnald)

Amenities:

  • Bathrooms: Communal bathrooms; two women’s and two men’s on each floor
  • AC/Heating: Heat and AC, and you have the power (to control it)!
  • Kitchen/Lounge: Small kitchen on each floor with a more spacious lounge (TV, armchairs, couch) across the hall.
  • Laundry: Laundry in the basement
  • Computers/Printers: Computer lab on the third floor. Eight computers and one printer (for the whole building!!).  Printer breaks often.
  • Gym: None
  • Intra-transportation: Three super fast, super state-of-the-art elevators
  • Wi-Fi: Yes
  • Hardwood/Carpet: Hardwood in the rooms, carpet in the hallways and lounge. Tile in the bathroom, kitchen, and area in front of the elevator.

Room variety:

  • Singles: Most of the rooms in Broadway.  They range from 102 sq. ft. to a whopping 134 sq. ft.  Most singles are between 100 and 115 sq. ft.
  • Doubles: Three doubles on each floor, one 200 sq. ft. and two that are ~165 sq. ft.

Numbers:

  • Large singles typically taken by rising seniors (cutoff was 30/2794 last year, though much lower—30/1025—the year before)
  • Other singles are taken by rising juniors (cutoff was 20/2585 last year), and some sophomores are able to get into the doubles (cutoff 10/2995 for the small doubles, 10/1053 for the large ones)

Bwog recommendation:

  • If you like a clean, quiet, private, perhaps isolated dorm experience, Broadway is for you.  Not a ton of character to the building, but you always know you’ll have somewhere clean to come home to.
  • Can’t beat its location right near campus and Broadway

Resident opinions:

  • “Broadway is pretty quiet, clean, and overall the facilities are pretty good compared to other dorms.”
  • “There’s never much going on and it’s usually pretty quiet, so if that’s what you’re looking for it’s a good choice.”
  • “Pretty convenient access to everywhere.”
  • “There isn’t a lot of mingling on the floors and pretty much people just keep to themselves.”
  • “While the single rooms are a little bit tight they’re pretty much as good as you’ll get at Columbia.”
  • “The bathrooms are very clean.”
  • “The kitchens are pretty small which makes them annoying to cook in especially because the sinks are very small.”