A view of Broadway from the fifth floor… not too bad

Barnard first-years might not get to choose what dorms they live next year but that doesn’t mean Bwog can’t review them anyway! Today, we’re taking a looks at Brooks Hall, Sulz’s hotter (in every sense of the word) neighbor.

Location: 116th St & Broadway

  • Nearby dorms: The rest of the dorms in the Quad (Sulz, Reid, and Hewitt), Elliott, the 600s, Schapiro, Furnald
  • Stores and restaurants: Morton Williams, Pret A Manger, Sweetgreen, Starbucks, UPS, and generally everything else directly surrounding Barnard’s campus.

Cost: Barnard hasn’t yet released prices for first-year housing for the 2018-19 school year, but all multiple-occupancy dorms were $9,510 for the 2017-18 school year.

Amenities:

  • Bathrooms: One per floor, with two showers, two sinks, and two toilets each. The bathrooms on floors 3, 5, and 7 are gender-inclusive, while the ones on floors 4, 6, and 8 are women only. All bathrooms are cleaned daily by Facilities.
  • AC/Heating: There’s heating, but no AC. The heating will make rooms feel extremely hot even during the winter, but the windows are big enough to let cool air in when you need it.
  • Kitchen/Lounge: There are no kitchens in Brooks, but each floor has a kitchen and lounge in Sulz that all residents of the Quad can use, fully equipped with a microwave, stove, oven, and sink. The first floor of Brooks has a study lounge with a more leisurely piano lounge connected to it.
  • Laundry: Each floor has one washer and two dryers, but there are more washers and dryers in Sulz, which all residents of the Quad can use. Laundry is $1.25 for each wash or dry, and laundry cards can be bought and refilled in the lobby of Sulz.
  • Fire Escapes: None.
  • Gym: None, but the Barnard Fitness Center is located nearby in the basement of Barnard Hall.
  • Bike Storage: None, but there’s a Citi Bike station nearby.
  • Intra-transportation: Two elevators between Brooks and Reid, and two elevators in Sulz. The Brooks/Reid elevators are slower than the Sulz elevators, and you’d be better off taking the stairs down if you’re trying to take the elevator around class time.
  • Hardwood/Carpet: All floors in rooms have linoleum tiles, while the hallways are carpet.

Room variety:

  • Corridor-style double, triple, and quad-occupancy rooms. Most are doubles and quads, with a triple on the eighth floor and an RA single on each floor.
  • The rooms on floors 3 through 7 are pretty standard amongst each other, with 3 quads, 4 doubles, and 1 RA single. Some of these doubles are walk-through doubles, while all of the quads are comprised of two doubles and a common room where all the desks are placed.
  • The rooms on floor 8 differ in that the rooms take up old lounge spaces, so they’re much bigger than the rooms on other floors. The quads don’t have a common room like the quads on other floors do, so everything is in one room.

Bwog recommendation:

First-years don’t get to choose where they’re living, so if you get assigned to Brooks, make sure you pack your best fan. The rooms are pretty small and very old, as Brooks is the oldest dorm on Barnard’s campus. It has a very homey feel, with lots of dark wood (I’d definitely say it’s the prettiest of the first-year dorms in the Quad). Not a lot of amenities are available directly in Brooks, with most of them being a short walk away in Sulz. The nicest thing about living in the Quad is convenience and easy access to anything close to campus, particularly classes.

Resident opinions:

  • “It gets really hot, so I have to keep my fan on at all times. The floors get pretty dusty really easily, so you always have to keep vacuuming. I like being in a quad though because even though the walls are thin, you still have privacy. The Lewis Parlor, the study lounge on the first floor, is definitely nice when it’s too cold to go to the library or you just don’t feel like leaving the quad. I also like being able to roll out of bed 15 minutes before my classes in Barnard Hall and still making it on time.”
  • “It’s pretty homey. Because of the walls, I feel like I have a lack of privacy. That includes anything I’m trying to do when I’m alone.”
  • “I wish I lived in Sulz because they have AC. You eventually get used to Brooks. The rooms don’t really get smaller than this so I guess you’re more excited than people who live in Sulz or Reid to get upperclassman housing since everything is bigger, even Elliott.”