About the Profiles

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About the Building and Landlord Profiles
Understanding Addresses
How to Use the Building/Property Owner Profiles

About the Building and Landlord Profiles

In the Places to Live section of the guide, you will find detailed profiles of landlords, rental real estate companies, buildings, and of individual rental property owners. These profiles contain information about specific location, neighborhood, contact information, application process, rental rates, number and size of rental units, amenities, and a link to tenant feedback where available (from the GAPSA Landlord Survey - see further information below).

Every effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the information, however, rental rates are always subject to change, as are policies of the management of a building or buildings. While representatives from each landlord, company or building were personally contacted to provide the information, please consider the details a best estimate of rental rates, occupancy, number of units, square footage and so on. Always contact the landlord or company directly for the most accurate information about availabilities. Additionally, the exterior photographs of the buildings are for reference only, for educational purposes so that one may visually recognize a building and distinguish it from another.

NOTE: Those landlords, buildings and companies from which we received updated information by our deadline are indicated with "Updated for 2011." We will publish additional updates periodocally as information becomes available.

We attempted to include the majority of large buildings where we know Penn students live, in addition to the landlords who own the majority of properties for rent to Penn students close to campus. There are other, smaller companies and plenty of private owners who rent apartments in University City and Center City, and listings for these units can be easily accessed through the OCS database. The inclusion of a building or company in this guide in no way constitutes a recommendation, preference or assertion of quality or availability. The consumer information provided here should be considered in conjunction with good judgment, common sense and individual preference.

For more detailed opinions about the properties and property owners featured here and many others, please visit the GAPSA Landlord Survey results. Another popular website for tenant feedback is ApartmentRatings.com. When interpreting tenant feedback on a web site, please consider that those tenants more likely to give feedback on the web are often either extremely dissatisfied or extremely satisfied, with fewer middle-of-the-road or neutral opinions present. The Landlord Survey response data collected and presented in this guide does not reflect the opinions, position or endorsement of either GAPSA or the University of Pennsylvania Office of Off-Campus Services. The responses and opinions presented are solely those of the survey respondents.

For more about the Landlord Survey, including FAQa, history, and description of process, go directly to the Landlord Survey website.

Understanding Addresses

Many of the buildings and landlords can be found on the numbered maps linked from the OCS home page. It may also be useful to understand how to interpret addresses in downtown Philadelphia on your own as you continue your housing search. Please refer to the University City and Center City maps together with the following explanation.

Center City, the oldest section of Philadelphia was planned and laid out in a grid. The main street that runs east-west from the Schuylkill (pronounced SKOO-kull) to the Delaware River is Market Street. The main street the runs north-south, bisecting the city, is Broad Street, in place of 14th.

The streets that run north-south progressing from the Delaware River all the way through University City and West Philadelphia are numbered beginning with 2nd Street (after Front Street) at Penn's Landing in Old City. Second Street through 13th Street are east of Broad; 15th Street through 29th Street are between Broad and the Schuykill River bridges; 30th Street and upward extend across University City and West Philadelphia. The main part of the University of Pennsylvania campus is bordered by 33rd Street on the east, 40th Street on the west, Chestnut Street on the north, and Spruce Street on the south.

The streets that run east-west, both north and south of Market Street, are often named after trees, such as Chestnut, Walnut, Locust, Spruce and Pine in both Center City and University City.

Addresses on an east-west street are assigned according to the numbered street (north-south) that intersects the east-west street at the corner. For example, an address on the 900 block of Pine Street would be found on Pine Street between 9th and 10th Streets. An address on the 4200 block of Locust Street would be found on Locust between 42nd and 43rd Streets.

Addresses on north-south streets, the numbered streets, can be more challenging to locate. Each address on a numbered street has either a north (N.) or a south (S.) direction to indicate whether the address is found north or south of Market Street.

In University City, on all numbered streets south of Market, numbers 0-100 fall between Market and Chestnut, numbers 100-200 fall between Chestnut and Walnut, numbers 200-300 fall between Walnut and Spruce, and numbers 300-400 fall between Spruce and Baltimore. For example, the address 20 S. 36th Street can be found on 36th Street between Market and Chestnut. In Center City, the address 206 S. 13th Street can be found on 13th Street between Walnut and Spruce (close to Walnut, in this case).

Since the downtown area of Philadelphia has maintained its historical planned grid of streets, you will find it easy to navigate once you are familiar with the names of the streets and the layout of the city.

How to Use the Building/Property Owner Profiles

The profiles are organized by landlords/companies and by building. Companies in University City own many different types and sizes of units, many of which are not featured in profiles.

The information given is a starting point for your search. Read the profile, visit the web sites, decide which buildings/companies fit your price range, compare amenities of one building with another. Call the building or company for more information or to be placed on a waiting list. Also, visit the GAPSA website for the survey results and comments if available. The goal of our this section is to help graduate students become more informed consumers, and we hope that the substantial information provided is useful to that end.