Housing Reviews 2020: Woodbridge

Woodbridge: an underrated alternative to EC.

Location: 431 Riverside Drive
Nearby dorms: Schapiro, 627 West 115th St., River, Greenborough, Potluck
Stores and restaurants: Morton William’s, a halal cart, Sweetgreen, Starbucks, Shake Shack, Pret.

Cost: standardized to $9,872 per year

Amenities:

Bathrooms: Sink, toilet, and bathtub (you heard that right, bathtub!), one per suite. Bathrooms are cleaned once a week by Facilities, but they don’t touch your stuff so unless you move it off the sink/bathtub they generally just do the toilet.
AC/Heating: Heating, but no AC.
Kitchen/Lounge: Each suite has its own kitchen and a large room that can be used as a common space or a second bedroom. There are no floor lounges.
Laundry: Free, in the basement.
Fire Escapes: None.
Gym: There’s a fitness room on the first floor.
Bike Storage: None.
Intra-transportation: One slow elevator; stairs.
Hardwood/Carpet: Linoleum in the kitchens, carpet in the rest of the suite. (Unless you’re in one of the rare renovated suites, which have hardwood floors.) Upper floors have nicer carpets.

Room variety:

There are six singles and 78 doubles, but most residents make their common space a bedroom to create two singles.
Housing divides the suites into low demand, medium demand, and high demand suites for lottery purposes.
High demand: H, K, and C. H and C suites face the river and have plenty of large windows. K suites face 114th and are slightly larger.
Low demand: G, D, I lines. G and D suites are shafted. I suites face 114th, but they’re all small.
Medium demand: all the others

Numbers from 2018:

High demand 2018 cutoff: 30/2012 (2017: 30/2503)
Medium demand 2018 cutoff: 20/110 (2017: 20/2157)
Low demand 2018 cutoff: 20/2994 (2017: 20/2820)

Bwog recommendation:
Woodbridge is a great option for senior/junior couples or pairs of friends who want the feeling of an apartment while still staying in Columbia housing. Suites are personal, spacious, and most have great views, and even the medium and low-demand suites are pretty nice, especially for rising juniors. In general, Woodbridge is good for anyone tired of the corridor-style dorm-y housing but only wants to live with one other person instead of a group. Despite somewhat thin walls and the hike to and from Riverside that can feel especially long in the cold, having what is essentially your own apartment in Manhattan is unbeatable.

Resident opinions:

“We were able to make it feel really homey and like a normal apartment rather than a dorm.”
“It can feel like a bit of a trek to EC (especially if you’re a senior and all your friends live there).”
“I heard from other residents that they had trouble with mice, but we never had any issues with rodents or bugs at all.”
“I really loved having the view of Riverside and watching sunsets out my window.”
“Sometimes it gets too hot, even in the winter, so we have to open some windows.”
“I do not like that my room doesn’t get sunlight, so beware of which suites you choose!”
“It gets really windy on 115th.”