Do you love the color blue, prewar aesthetics, and size inequities? So does 47 Claremont.

Location: 47 Claremont Avenue

• Nearby dorms: Many Barnard options: Elliott is right next door, and the 600s are just down the street. Schapiro is a five-minute walk.
• Stores and restaurants: Claremont itself is a quiet residential street (complete with a daycare and student drivers trying to parallel park), so you’ll have to go up to Broadway to access anything.
• Cost: $11,026/year (projected rate for 2022-2023) 

Amenities: 

• Bathrooms: One private bathroom (one toilet, sink, and shower) per suite. Cleaned weekly by facilities (so is the kitchen). 
• AC/Heating: No AC, and you won’t have any control over the temperature and power of the heating. Radiators in normal people-sized rooms, and if you’re in a painfully small one (<100 square feet), you get to get by with a nice little heating pipe!
• Kitchen: The kitchens in the Claremont suites are pretty decked out and incredibly functional. You get a full-sized stove/oven, microwave, and fridge, and everything is quite new. There’s plenty of cabinet and counter space. The only thing they don’t have is a dishwasher, but that’s character building. 
• Lounge: There is one TV lounge in the basement of the building with the largest television known to man. It’s super new, but also a little awkward because it’s out in the open.
• Laundry: Free laundry (four washers and four dryers, so not very many machines) in the basement in a shockingly nice room. Up to half of them have been known to be out of commission at a time, but not for long, and it’s a small building, so it’s not quite as much of an emotional ordeal even then.
• Fire escapes: … yes. You aren’t technically allowed to use them. But they are there…
• Computers/Printing: A tiny computer lab in the basement, and the slowest printer known to man in the lobby.
• Gym: There is a tiny gym room in the basement with some treadmills and other things.
• Intra-transportation: There’s one very slow elevator, but because the building is only six floors, it’s usually okay. To get to the basement, you either have to take the elevator or a separate set of stairs, which are outside and can get cold.
• Hardwood/Carpet: Hardwood bedrooms and hallways, tile bathrooms, fake wood kitchens.

Room Variety: 

• There are 10 seven-person suites (one extremely small single, one medium single, one large single, and two large doubles).
• There is one six-person suite (one double and four singles) on the first floor.
• There is one five-person suite (one double and three singles) on the first floor. 
• There are six four-person suites (all singles, with one significantly smaller than the others).
• There are six three-person suites (all singles, with one significantly smaller than the others). Three of these are reserved for the RA and two other individuals who can select in.

Numbers: 

From Columbia Housing: “Data from Room Selection 2021 shows the make-up of this building as 50% sophomores, 25% juniors, 21% seniors and 4% mixed-point groups (average point value of mixed-point groups was 28).”

In general, seven-person suites are available for sophomore housing groups, even at the end of Room Selection; four-and-three-person suites are maybe available for lucky juniors, but usually long gone by the third day of junior housing.

Bwog Recommendation: 

The Claremont highlights are as significant as its drawbacks. The authors of this review adore Claremont, but it also must be said that, by amazing fortune, we live in a Claremont three-person suite as juniors, and that sweet, sweet person-to-amenities ratio definitely influences our experience of Claremont for the better. 

The drawbacks: if you’re not a junior or senior group, you’re going to be saddled with a 7:1 person to amenities ratio. The size inequity of the rooms is a problem for all the suites: someone is always going to have to take one for the team and live in the smallest single. There also isn’t really a common space in the suites beyond a kitchen table, which is tolerable but far from perfect. The biggest drawback for one of the authors, and one you can’t necessarily ascertain from the floor plans: you’ll be living in a timeless void in Claremont, thanks to the fact that all of the windows (save those of the street-facing doubles in the seven-person suites) are shafted—and it does matter. Also, you’re not really near any other Columbia dorms, and even though Claremont isn’t that far from the center of campus life, expect some comments from friends who come over about the trek that they had to endure to see you.

The highlights: even with all of the negatives, the things that are universal to all Claremont residents are pretty spectacular: beautiful blue walls with crown molding; recently renovated kitchens and bathrooms; living on a quiet, residential street where the buildings all get decorated with lights in the winter; bathrooms you don’t have to wear shower shoes in; the nicest facilities people on earth. While the high-rise, big-building life has its perks, it’s also worth noting that it’s nice to not be completely dependent on an elevator (sixth-floor walk-ups, anyone?), and (so far) there has never been a fire alarm that forces the whole building to evacuate. 

It’s a pretty quiet building in every way. Claremont truly does feel like an actual home, and the vibe makes it such a comforting place to return to after a long day at Columbia. And seriously, don’t underestimate the power of those blue walls.

Resident and Visitor Opinions:

• “Those blue walls saved my life. Many times.”
• “This feels like a log cabin!”
• (over Zoom) “I can see that you’re not in a dorm. You’re in a home!”
• (from a current EC resident) “I want to live in a place like this next year.”

Photos of a three-person suite and header of Claremont in its gothic era via Bwog Staff