The building at 3003 Van Ness itself is pretty nice. The floor plans are very large and the building is very convenient to the Red Line metro and Giant (1 block away). Most of the front desk and maintenance staff are also great, and try to do the best they can to assist residents with whatever we needed. The pool and gym are pretty nice too, and there is a parking garage onsite. In terms of space and location, there are probably not many better than this place--it is both relatively quiet (at least compared to AdMo and Dupont) and close to everything.
But the management is pretty bad. The building is managed by Equity Residential, a company that cares more about saving as much money as possible than anything else. My experience has been that they will nickel and dime you at every opportunity.
For example, this is the company that fought tooth and nail for years to keep in place a scheme to circumvent rent control regulations and charge residents large rent increases. We lived in the building for approximately 10 years, and in that time we had to move from one apartment to another just to save money because Equity refused to lower the rent on our unit despite another similar unit being advertised for over $600 less one floor down (lowering the rent would have undermined their rent control avoidance scheme, so they would not do it).
Equity also removed a number of amenities during our time there (ATM machine was never fixed and coffee service was discontinued). The laundry machines and elevators were frequently broken. The garage door was also very often broken, allowing anyone to come into the building through it. That is probably why there were so many burglaries and other crime incidents in the building (although thankfully we never experienced that ourselves).
Overall, I think the building is pretty good for people on the younger side who favor location and size. As long as you are aware of what you are walking into with Equity and are prepared for it, it can be a very good place to live. We don't regret that we lived there because the convenience for us outweighed the problems. But if you want a place where management puts residents first instead of money, look elsewhere.
Male, 40
Moved out June, 2021