596 W Hawthorne - PPM Apartments

Oct 20th, 2020

Aug 17th, 2016

Sep 4th, 2015

ETA: Adding this review again because it seemed to have disappeared! When I saw this building advertised as "luxury Lakeview apartments," I laughed so hard the roaches came out to see what was so funny. My experience in Apt 112 at 596 W. Hawthorne has been so disgusting, I just felt compelled to publicly contradict such a heinous work of fiction. I had the misfortune of being hustled into this ancient crack house because I was trying to get moved to Chicago quickly for a work deadline, and the leasing agent definitely capitalized on my urgency. After living here for nearly a year, the advertising is truly laughable. The "lovely courtyard" is filled with rats both dead and alive, and the "vintage style and charming details" include house centipedes and a whole three outlets. Welcome to the laundry room, which looks like something out of the opening scene from Saw. Wander down the hallways, which smell like a different flavor of puke every time the seasons change for literally no reason. Luxury is not in this building's vocabulary. When I complained about the massive roaches I'd been having despite the precautions I'd taken, the office tried to tell me they were "water bugs" and clearly the problem was me neglecting to cover my drains. Like I don't know what a cockroach looks like when it's big enough to help pay the rent. They sprayed every week for months and I still caught 3 of those suckers on sticky paper trying to come in under the door. The number of work orders I've put in at this place is obscene. I had 6 separate leaks from the ceiling in two different places. One particular leak they let go for 10 days (see picture attached). There's not a straight line in the entire apartment as everything is so crooked, and the doors swell bad enough in the summer you can barely shut them. We've had the water and electric randomly cut so many times I've honestly lost count. They're constantly working on something. Don't get me wrong-- they put a lot of money into fresh coats of paint and shiny chrome appliances to make it look habitable. You have to admire the tenacity of their lipstick-on-a-pig approach, but at the end of the day the floors are still mushy, the walls are still cracking, and it's still an eyesore just begging for a date with a bulldozer. I would say to refer all your exes to this building, but even that would be business PPM doesn't deserve. Take your $1200 a month to a studio elsewhere... money doesn't buy happiness but it can buy a room where bugs don't land on your face. Happy hunting!
Nov 11th, 2023