Parque Kirkland Apartments

I have found Parque to be an amazing place to tour but quite a poor place to live. In order:

Positives:

+ Kind and well-meaning staff
+ Mail/package delivery works very well
+ The spacious, glass-covered lobby is beautiful. So is the rooftop
+ Location

Negatives:

- The walls are extremely thin. You will hear every sneeze, snore, walk, and conversation from your neighbors. And if you are close to the elevator/stairwell the noise is multiplied. I assume this is a bit less bad on the top floor… considering the lack of upstairs neighbors. But then again, you would still hear all the rooftop traffic in addition to the neighbors.
- The building does not have ANY backup power. So when the electricity goes out you are stuck without heating (or cooling) and your car in the garage's electric stalls is locked up and unrecoverable. This was mind-blowing to experience and I had to Lyft to work (which the building at least expensed). Also, your windows' tint becomes permanent (see more below).
- The building tries too hard to be "smart" and fails at the basics. See the next two points.
- a) There are no physical locks, everything has to be unlocked using an app on your phone for the "smart" locks. But these locks run out of batteries and bug out, so you will often find yourself spending up to a minute trying to unlock the door or being completely locked out. One time, I saw the locks in the hallways just give out and we had to keep the hallway doors wide open. Not ideal.
- b) The windows are "smart" and come with an app to manage how dark/light they can be on a schedule. Sounds great, but it often breaks (e.g., after an electricity outage or a bad software update). Then, you are stuck with dark windows for days/weeks while the "View Smart Windows" people (the company that owns the windows) try to troubleshoot them remotely. This is pretty nuts for something as basic as windows.
- The facilities support is horrendous. It takes 10 days to get something looked at and the technicians sent are often at loss about the technology (even the fridges/stoves). This is the worst service I have had in the years of living across Washington state.

If I could give one simple parting advice: dump the "smart" locks/windows/parking in favor of something that works. At the end of the day, we just want the doors and windows to work, and for our cars to be usable. Then at least the poor facilities support will matter less, as we will not need to rely on the technicians. Read More