Not as bad as people say it is!

Location: 2940 Broadway and 115th Street

• Nearby dorms: Carman, Schapiro, Frat Row (includes dorms like Hogan and Broadway).
• Stores and restaurants: Ferris/Lerner is right next door, and Shake Shack, Morton Williams, Starbucks, Junzi, and Sweetgreen are all a short walk away.
• Cost: The 2023-2024 projected first-year rate is $10,440. Unlike the 2022-2023 academic year, the dorm will be exclusively for freshmen in the 2023-2024 year.

Amenities:

• Bathrooms: Two communal bathrooms per floor, usually gendered. Facilities cleans them pretty frequently, and residents are generally tidy. Some of the showers are a bit janky—two of the three on my floor had an inverted knob and the other one hasn’t had a shower head for a few months, having multiple showers on at the same time changes how much you need to turn the knob, but all things considered, they’re alright. The first floor also has a few single-use bathrooms.
• AC/Heating: One of two freshman dorms with AC! It’s pretty great. Housing controls the switch from heat to AC, and is often a little behind the weather, but you always have the option to control the flow and temperature, and opening the windows usually provides a good breeze.
• Lounges & Kitchens: Floor lounges are the best of any freshman dorm—spacious, decent furniture (usually 2 spinny tub-style chairs, a loveseat/small couch, a table, six wooden chairs, and a TV with cable). The kitchens each have a sink, several spacious cabinets, an oven, two microwaves, and two stove burners. The lavish ground floor lounge is a nice place to hang out and gives Furnald a lot of character.
• Laundry: There are six dryers and washers in the basement that are a little funky but they get the job done. Sometimes the dryers make your clothes smell a little odd.
• Computers/Printing: There’s a PawPrint station by the security desk, as well as a computer lounge on the first floor.
• Fire Escapes: None.
• Gym: Also none, but it’s the closest freshman dorm to Dodge.
• Elevators: Two elevators that take you from the basement to floor 9, from which you have to walk to get to the tenth floor. The elevators are fine, but the right one has a tendency to break down about every other month.
• Flooring: Carpet in the hallways, hardwood in the rooms, and linoleum in the lounges.

Room Variety:

• 190 singles ranging from 100 to 163 square feet. If you get a single in a corner, it might feel smaller because of how the room is constructed, but in general, they aren’t too cramped.
• 28 doubles that range from 171 square feet to up to a whopping 275 square feet, but most aren’t more than 190. Most floors only have two or three doubles per, and the biggest doubles are on floors 1, 3, 4, and 10.
• Because of the lounge, floors 1 and 2 are divided in half, with floor 2 being effectively two gendered suites with 9-10 people. Each suite has its own amenities.
• Most views are pretty good, barring floor 10 and any room that looks north or south to Pulitzer or Lerner respectively. The Broadway view is alright, but the best views are looking east onto campus with great lighting, sunsets, and pretty trees.

Bwog Recommendation:

• Furnald is alright! It’s clean, conveniently located, and has great amenities. The only major complaints in that regard will be if something goes wrong like the water damage in my room likely caused by sharing a wall with the showers.
• Maybe this is an unlucky year, but most floors are pretty quiet with a few clear, notable exceptions. Often, people will go to lounges that aren’t the ones on their own floor, which can be nice, and there’s definitely a set of “Furnald main characters.” But broadly it seems that there’s some truth in the stereotype that Furnald is relatively antisocial and isolating, and maybe that’s alright for the introverted people that just want to vibe.
• It’s been a nice time. Could’ve been worse, could’ve been better. Knowing now what I know, I can confidently say that I would have rather lived somewhere else, but that’s nothing against the building, just my personal preference.
• Proximity to Lerner comes in clutch for beating the dinner rush or grabbing a quick breakfast, and being on the west side of campus can make it easy to get to other buildings on the west side like Mathematics, the entirety of Barnard, and both Dodges.
• Only some of its reputation is deserved, but no dorm is without faults.

Assorted Testimonies:

• “It’s basically just John Jay deluxe.”
• “AC is a game changer.”
• “Furnald is a great home away from home. It is peaceful and always friendly!”
• “Furnald is great because it’s close to everything and offers a sort of quiet oasis. It’s more close-knit than other dorms and has a really nice homey feel—quiet but not antisocial. I chose Furnald because I wanted a solid home base where I could always count on being able to unwind and relax after a night out or a long day. I love having a dorm community that is down for going out or having a simple movie night in.”
• “Living in Furnald is the best kept freshman year hack. Singles, AC, shelves, clean bathrooms, and quiet. Need I say more?”

Furnald Hall exterior via The Shaft

Furnald Hall interiors via Author