Library Gardens Apartments

I lived in LG for 3 years, from 2012 – 2015; Iived in a 2 bedroom 1 bath, ~750sq. ft. First year, rent was $ 2479/​month. Little expensive, but not too bad. Next year they bumped up the price to $ 2649. The year after that, it was $ 2959. The first year I lived in LG, I was pretty happy. The place was clean, well kept, and Irish (the property manager) was very nice and helpful. However, the apartment was pretty loud — I got the unit facing the courtyard, and there was always people partying or kids playing outside and you can hear them as if you’re standing next to them. I had to call courtesy security patrol at least once a month. There are also weird sketchy people in the place– my friend left his laundry in the dryer for too long and one crazy woman took out all his laundry and gave them all to hobos outside. He had to recollect his laundry from the homeless. Now what kind of crazies do that? He lived on the FOURTH floor.
I started getting more and more discontent with this place because of several things: first, the price. The absurd rises in rent price forced me to live with many roommates, and often times I had to find subletters for my roommates. Some of them were ok, some of them were absolute hell to deal with. If the rent did not increase every year, I would not have been forced to place someone in the living room. It’s just too hard to keep the place clean with so many people. The place was spotless the first year, but year after year I got so tired of cleaning by myself. It was just absurd to pay this much price.
Also, the parking is additional $ 120– and the parking management is absolute hell to deal with. No one in that office will help you get things straight (for example when they accidentally voided my card even though I paid every month, they kept saying they could not help, wait for the manager; manager would say call this number).
I think the worst part was that they repainted the entire place to dark brown and blue, and floor to some ugly fake-​wood. I couldn’t breathe because it smelled so bad. It literally smelled like cancer. I really wanted to take a sample of the paint and floor to test for carcinogens.
Property managers are nice but often too overworked to really take care of your needs. One really weird thing was they could not get my key right for some reason. I got locked out and asked for them to open the door. And they kept trying the door, but couldn’t open. Master key wouldn’t work either. They kept asking if I changed the lock. No, I have never changed the lock… so every time they needed to do maintenance, I had to be there to open the door for them. Sigh.

So glad I moved here. I was living in Alameda and found a great deal on a place here. I love the location. The management staff has been very responsive. I had an issue early on with the people upstairs they have since moved and some nice quiet engineering students moved in. For an apartment the price is reasonable. Close to all bus lines.

5 stars for location and cleanliness. Nice staff but poor management. Constant loss of packages. For one thing, package service was included in the contract. But everyone ends up paying extra for a third-​party locker. Very loud noises and road cleaning every night at 2am, just punctual. When I called to report a beeping smoke detector late in the afternoon. They said, «YES, that you would have to sleep (with the beep every 30s) until the maintenance is on duty tomorrow.» We renewed the lease at $ 3450/​mo. And found out it mysteriously hiked to $ 3550 for 2 rooms. Seriously? Well played in this housing shortage. Only in Berkeley.

I lived in Library Gardens for two years and I highly recommend it for so many reasons. They maintain the apartment building very well with regular cleaning and redecorating. The apartment units are also perfect for either students or families, and they even have outdoor garden to hang out and enjoy the sun! Their location is also perfect, right next to downtown Berkeley where you can find all the fun.
But for me, the best part about living in Library Gardens is their service. The management is very nice, helpful, friendly, and reliable. They would have fun parties every now and then. Whenever I need help with something, they are always ready to help. I’ve talked to Rochelle and Denee to help me with an issue, and they are both super amazing! I don’t know any other apartment management who cares about their tenant like Rochelle and Denee and the entire Library Gardens management.

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE management. The office never get things done. Every time I ask them to fix something I had to ask more than three times. Lost my package. Got the rent messed up (me and my roommate both paid the rent and they call me saying one of us didn’t pay). The apartment is not as safe as it looks. Six people died fallen from the balcony few weeks ago. And homeless sleeping inside the building at night.

I have to say, I had a fairly, nearly completely miserable experience living at Library Gardens between 2012 – 2013. The day I moved in with my roommate, we were told our fourth floor apartment had recently received new carpeting. We were warmly greeted by nail clippings and used false eyelashes on the floor of said «new carpet». We showed photographs of this crap on our carpet to the front desk manager, Irish, and were requesting vacuuming for the space, but our complaint was essentially overlooked by disbelief and lack of seriousness. During my time living there, my roommates and I dealt with countless maintenance issues in our apartment that were met with the same lack of professionalism and accountability. I would never recommend anyone to live here and I hope it is shut down in the near future due to the tragic incident that happened this morning.

Management was poor when I had t deal with them years ago. Slow fixes, doing anything they can to avoid ADA reasonable accomodations, and now clearly failing to maintain the building to the point of habitabiliy. If other units are deeed unhabitable, I hope remaining tenant are rehoused at the Owner’s cost (which I believe city code accomodates for,) and all maxium city penalties are pursued Library Gardens knew that refusing to keep their building in a livable state was llegal, and similarly knew refusing reasonable ADA accomodations was illegal

WOW. I can’t believe it took me 6 years to write this review, I feel awful waiting so long… especially after what happened today. I lived here from 2008 – 2009.
I moved into Library Gardens in 2008, 1 year after they were built. What happened with the Irish kids falling off the balcony is so terrible. When I heard the news from my boyfriend I didn’t know at the time what complex it was I almost said to him, «it was probably Library Gardens, where I lived in college». Imagine when my mom texted me an article about it, showing the ugly beige brown building and mosaic gates…
The architecture of the building really is terrible. 100% truth. I hope they do a full inspection in light of what has happened. My roommate and I used to joke that Ikea was expanding to building construction. The walls were so thin we could here everything and had to sleep with earplugs. We also had to put flattened cardboard boxes against our windows to prevent gusts of cold air coming. Whenever something was wrong the building took forever to fix it, and the staff was incredibly rude. On top of that, we paid so much $$$, probably the most expensive complex around campus at the time.

Kind of nice. Generally miserable. Management is unreliable. Super friendly fairly helpful but altogether clueless about most things. But over worked. Never take care of anything on time, Constantly screw up, Don’t show up, Aren’t there when you need them. Loose things (Rent checks), forget about things. Onsite laundry has gotten better now that they got new machines. Management has gotten better and more prompt about fixing things since the balcony collapsed killing those people. There is now a regular cleaning crew which makes it better but the building is still fairly filthy from years of non stop neglect. No amount of bleach could clean this pig up.
Apartments can be loud noisy, lacks any amenities, No real gardens of any kind and the courtyard is set up in a way to discourage people to walk in it which is why there is no benches thank goodness. Management doesn’t take care of any maintenance issues in a timely manner generally. Windows are poorly constructed and sweat during rain storms this can lead to mold of which the building has already had many issues with. Huge homeless problem in stairwells and laundry rooms. Piss, Fecal matter, Condoms, articles of clothing in stairwells, trash in P2, lots of lazy entitled rich people now live here who are delusional and actually think their rent money goes back into cleaning the place they live LOL. Garage downstairs is a crap hole, lots of homeless sleep down there and the gates to get in and out are always broken, guys who work in garage also extremely incompetent and don’t care. Dog poop/​pee in courtyards. Very unclean most of the time. Building is owned by Blackrock investments which is a shitty investment company with a branch out of SF their focus is on money and profit not safety, cleanliness or reasonability. This place is a huge rip off in just about every way. But if you need to be near BART and want to live in downtown with all the problems we have in downtown then go for it. Ps. Balcony collapse apartments were gutted and renovated and soon are being re-​rented out; 305,405.

As a parent looking for a safe, quiet and clean place for your children or ward I would recommend Library Gardens. Staff is friendly and even offered me a 1 day parking pass at the Garage near Kittridge street.
I loved the cleanliness and it is located close to Campus as well as the public Library.
Staff offered me a cup of coffeee when we first signed up. On our next visit, we went to this amazing coffee place next to Library gardens.
A lot of international students here too and my son has international roomates… overall a great value for money.

I’m a UC Berkeley student and lived at Library Gardens from Aug 2011 — May 2012, and loved my time here. I signed up for Unilocal just to help with their ratings and get the word out.
Again, the old reviews are not super relevant since Library Gardens is now under new management (which, by the way, is fantastic. Most of the management are friendly, helpful, polite, and on top of things.)
I’m an EECS student so obviously the location wasn’t ideal, but as Berkeley apartments go, I feel like this place is pretty top-​notch compared to the other apartments I’ve looked at around Berkeley (especially northside apartments near Soda hall and around Hearst ave, which tend to be older, pricier, not as well maintained, and maybe even «sketchier»).
Pros:
–near to BART, which was super convenient during the summer if you happen to have work in SF.
–Near to coffee, food, theaters, CVS pharmacy, Walgreens, bus stops, the Perimeter and Night shuttle stops are also near, public library, printing (replica copy!), 10 minute walk to Dwinelle and VLSB (just cut through to oxford and you’re pretty much there).
–Gated community.
–At night there tend to be officers/​guards around who try to maintain the noise level and basically keep things under control/​
–As for packages and mail, management takes your packages for you during the daytime so you rarely miss your packages when they deliver.
– modern buildings/​seismic reinforcement. I make this a point because the apartments around Northside tend to be old… and some even have earthquake-​hazard notices posted outside the building. This was a huge plus for me because currently I’m dealing with old, crappy pipes and the toilet clogging CONSTANTLY at my current apartment. I never had to deal with those problems at Library Gardens, and if you run into any problems the management office is near the complex and you could report it to them easily.
– they help you find roommates if you need one. This place really tries to cater towards students.
Cons — It is noisy sometimes, but I lived on the first floor and was next to the main gate entrance (also near the street). There are usually parties on the weekends but seriously, it wasn’t as noisy as living in the Units (the UCB dorms), and the noise tended to subside after 1−2AM and I usually stayed up that late anyway. This might be a problem for people who want to sleep earlier.
– Apartment is kind of small, had trouble fitting two beds and a desk in the bedroom.
–Homeless people are everywhere but hey, we’re right next to Shattuck ave so what did you expect? Management usually takes care of the homeless people who wander close enough to the apartment complex so that isn’t really an issue.
– I haven’t really had any issues with safety with the surrounding neighborhood (walked around Shattuck at midnight and even after some nights, but that doesn’t always mean the neighborhood is always safe).

I lived at Library Gardens during my last year at Berkeley, which was 2011 – 2012. It is pricier than other apartment living, but I suppose for good reason. It is clean, quiet, and in the words of a friend, ‘too bourgeois to feel like Berkeley’. =)
The CURRENT Library Gardens management is great. That is to say, the bad reviews of previous years are from a DIFFERENT management, that seems to have been terrible. The entire management is polite, professional, punctual and hold many other praiseworthy attributes.
The only drawback to this place is of course, the budget of the average student. I wouldn’t have been able to afford it either, but I was fortunate to receive a hefty discount (~25%). They pay for Comcast and trash.
Do talk to the CURRENT management. They will help in finding a roommate and are friendly people (Especially Irish ^^).

I love Library Gardens! I started living here August 2010, and my lease will end at the end of July.
I tried hard to convince my new roommates to live here, but they thought it was too far from most of our friends (southside) and the central parts of the UC Berkeley campus. I agree that it is far, but that’s why public transportation exists to connect people to key locations. There are two bus stops at Shattuck and Kittredge, and almost every single bus around campus stops there (51B, F, 1, 1R, 52, 49, 18, Perimeter, Late Night Shuttles, etc).
Pros:
— One of the few clean, safe, and new apartments in Berkeley
— Price is great if you live with 5 people. I’m doing this right now.
— Multiple laundry rooms on each floor
— Trash chute on each floor (but try not to get a room near the trash chute because it smells)
— It’s the apartment with the prettiest and cleanest courtyardS in Berkeley.
— Shattuck is much more fun than College Ave or Telegraph Ave! You’re just a few blocks away from delicious restaurants, CVS, Walgreens, Bart, John’s $ 1 Ice Cream, Starbucks, Peet’s, etc!
— Apartment comes with Comcast (Cable and Internet) set up
— You’ll probably get half off your first month’s rent
Cons:
— Lighting… apartment becomes a cave at night. The lights on the ceilings are inside the ceiling??? Does that make sense? It doesn’t jut out like most ceiling lights, which is why rooms are not lit well. Bring a lot of floor lamps.
— Parking is $ 105/​month… Parking in Berkeley is just expensive in general though.
— If you miss the bus, you might as well not go to class if the next bus isn’t coming anytime soon.
— If you live on the Kittredge side, it’s loud… especially very early in the morning (because of the Post Office) and lunch time (because of the high schoolers).
— It’s small… the biggest room they have is 797 sq ft.
I will miss you Library Gardens :’(

Please don’t move here. There are just too many problems to mention. The management is crappy. Jose is the worst manager I’ve had in my whole rent experience.
It’s noisy sometimes, but that doesn’t bother me. The apartment maintenance bothers me the most. It’s very nasty here.
When we first moved here, the management and staff was friendly and accommodating. Now, Jose and family! The good staff was let go and run off. The only one who appears to be doing his job is Alex. He seems to work hard. The rest of the staff look like deer caught in headlights when they’re asked questions.
When you call maintenance, they lie and say that they’re coming the same day or the next day. I’m still waiting for the next day to come after over three weeks of waiting for something to be fixed.
When my roommates and I first moved in the apartment complex seemed well kept. Now there’s dog shit everywhere, garbage in the hallways, nasty washrooms, newly discovered roaches, and vomit and piss in the stairwells. I’ve even seen rats around the building.
The rent is way too high. You’re paying over $ 2500. for project living. Huh??? Really??? As soon as our lease is up we’re getting the hell out of here.
Take my advise, don’t move here!

I’m SO glad I moved out of this building.
Yes, it is a nicer/​newer apartment complex in Berkeley… it’s also really close to BART, campus, 3 movie theaters and a bunch of restaurants in downtown Berkeley. (which is why I’m giving 2 stars instead of 1)
BUT… the management is rude, unknowledgeable, inefficient and unhelpful, rent is expensive considering there are few/​no amenities (no pool, no fitness room), parking costs an extra $ 100 and the apartments are small.
Dealing with the management was such a hassle, and their unpleasant attitudes really annoyed me. Checks had to be dropped off in the office (although they were only open from 9 – 5, which is inconvenient for people who work) and they did not implement a drop box until approximately 2 months before I moved out (I lived there for over a year). Also, when I first moved in I saw people punching in a code to open the outer doors, so I asked management for the code. They lied and said there was no code to open the doors; luckily a friend’s friend lived in the building and told us what the code was. Also, initially the management refused to accept packages (because there was not enough space to store them, although their office looked spacious enough to me) unless it was a «special» case (like a laptop). However, when I ordered a laptop and they signed for the delivery, they ended up just leaving the box in the hallway outside of my door, where anyone could have taken it!!! Which defeats the whole purpose of having them sign for it.
The walls were pretty thin, and since I lived on the side of the building facing Berkeley High it got pretty loud sometimes. Also, there was often trash in the hallways (sometimes even a nasty trail leading all the way down the hallway to the trash chute) and nasty stuff (a moldy tupperware container on top of a light, trash, clumps of hair??) in one of the stairwells. Oh, which reminds me, I used the stairs as much as possible to avoid the slow and sometimes broken elevators. I hated using the elevators and took every effort to avoid them.
Another gross/​unsightly thing while I was there: during winter, when it was raining a lot, there was a leak in the roof in the hallway on my floor (4^th)…which then turned into a huge gaping hole. It was so unsafe/​nasty looking, you could see the various layers of material in the ceiling sagging out of the hole. It took several months for them to fix it.
I would not recommend living here :(

I have been a resident for the past year at library gardens, and just recently renewed my lease for a second year. Before resigning the lease, I did look around for other places in the area. The only reason why I considered really moving out was to find maybe a cheaper place to live and also because the neighbors below us were really disruptive in the wee hours of the night.
However, after spending some time looking for a new place, I realized that library gardens is really one of the best choices to live in as a Cal student. It’s safe (you need a key/​code to enter the building itself, there are security cameras, and there is an after hours security patrol to protect you at night!), it’s convenient (the bus stops are right outside, it’s right next to the public library, and there are tons of places to eat around Shattuck), and it’s brand new (you can’t find that much around campus!).
Also, it has two laundry rooms on each floor, a trash shoot on every floor, and a really safe parking garage. Furthermore, whenever I had problems with smoke detector running out of battery, a light bulb running out, or anything really, as long as you let management know, they have it fixed that same day! They were very accommodating to my needs and I’ve never had any problems with them. Also, because their management is on site, and leasing office is open everyday, the office staff signs for your packages… so that eliminates the difficulty in worrying if your package is safe or not! And it definitely saves you a couple package pick up slips.
Basically, I couldn’t find any other apartment complex that could live up to my high expectations that were set by Library Gardens. Sure, people say it’s on the expensive side, but for just a little bit more money, you get convenience, safety, helpful management, and a decent place to live in — definitely worth it!

There were so many problems with the management of this complex that I don’t even know where to begin. First off, my roommates and I were sold to this place by the original set of management who were super friendly and accomodating at a premium price due to the fact that the complex was very new and close to campus – a rare luxury in Berkeley some few years ago.
As the familiar faces towards the latter half of our first year started disappearing, the problems started happening. And after our first year’s lease ended, the management enticed us to renew with various perks to help ease the pain from the significant raise in rent. Turns out we never received these perks until half a year later after we fought tooth and nail for them. Then later we discovered that the management was having problems finding renters at their high price and thus significantly dropped the rent to much lower than what we were paying. We even talked to them about this and they refused to do anything about it.
Thus not only was management crap, but the elevators were slow as hell, parking was an extra $ 100 per month, and you could hear absolutely every noise in the courtyard and from other people’s apartments facing the courtyard. Not worth your troubles.

I lived at Library Gardens when I was a student at Berkeley, from July 2007 to June 2009. The location isn’t bad — it gets really noisy sometimes but that’s not something that really bothers me. It is however, really, really expensive. In retrospect, not worth it, especially with the noise, the tiny space, the lack of service, and the distance to campus. The one draw is that it’s relatively newer than most apartments on campus — if you don’t want to live in an old apartment, there isn’t much choice.
The management there went downhill since the beginning — when we first moved in, they were responsive, attentive, and generally seemed to care about the people who lived there. As time went on, the friendly and familiar faces started disappearing, and the people who worked in the office were not at all like their predecessors.
My roommates and I had a lot of issues with management raising our rent by ridiculous amounts, and then going and making offers to new tenants a good 50% less than what we were paying. Management also reneged on offers that they made — if they say that they’ll give you perks for renewing your lease, you may have to fight tooth and nail to actually get the perks. We fought with them for over 5 months because they were arguing that an agreement wasn’t valid as the person who signed it was terminated. The hell is that?
I’m giving this place one star because I feel that the management of this place really killed it. All they care about is sucking money out of the tenants, and fighting with management is not something you should have to worry about while getting through school.

I lived at Library Gardens for a year from July 08-​August 09. The place is small and pricy, relative to neighboring apartments. Every floor is like a maze and visitors, more often than not, have trouble locating the specific apartment since the numbering system is a little funky. If you are on the side facing Bancroft, beware of the rambunctious screamers leaving Shattuck Down-​Low – earplugs help on most nights.
Despite all that, I think the place is a gem. They are centrally located next to the Berkeley Public Library, major downtown bus stops, the post office, the bank, everything!
They pay for the internet – no wifi, but there are ethernet jacks in every room – and we pay for water and electricity. The central heating and cooling always keep the place at a perfect temperature. There are at least two laundry facilities on every floor. The place is small, but try to think quaint. The limitations will help you learn how to live minimally without the excess books, swords, and junk. They have storage downstairs, which can be for your locking needs or über-​nice bicycle. They have CityCarShare in the lot below and I’m pretty sure the EMTs and the ambulance are there too. Right before I moved out they started a security patrol going around the floors every night.
Yes, this place is a luxury apartment. If you’re looking for safety, convenience and comfort, Library Gardens is an A-​OK place. Oh! And the management is great! Aliah and Kimberly are knowledgeable and awesome. I mentioned briefly one morning how the drain in the showers were suffering and I came home that afternoon to clean pipes and new lighting in the bathroom.
(P.S. I’ve lived in Berkeley as a student for the past 6 or 7 years and have lived in and worked with a handful of properties. This place is one of my favorites.)

After visiting my friend’s place here and reading all the horror stories about it on other apartment review sites, I’m convinced Library Gardens (and Stadium Place down the street) exist to serve one market: Parents of Berkeley undergrads who are horrified by the dorms and old apartments and will pay any price to put their kids up somewhere nice.
Seriously. That’s the market. Apparently enough of these parents exist to fill these buildings. I guess like the saying says, there’s one born every minute.
Too bad this company preys on them by creating a building that looks nice and new after that first visit, but suffers from poor construction, terrible maintenance, security problems and bad management. Great for Library Gardens, not so great for the Berkeley student population.
Someday better student housing (on par with other college towns) will get built here. Someday…