Now that they have settled in, students living in Northeastern’s latest housing construction, the 21-story LightView building on Columbus Avenue, are responding to their new environment with mixed reviews.

Boasting fully-furnished apartments and a multitude of amenities including a 24-hour fitness center, a record lounge, a billiards room and multiple study lounges, LightView, built in partnership with American Campus Communities, presented itself as an attractive option for third-years or above looking to move off campus when deciding where to live.

Though it’s not a part of the official housing lottery, LightView functions much like other Northeastern apartments — the building has units that come in a multitude of layouts, it’s within walking distance of classrooms and features a high level of security. Students must sign themselves and guests in at a proctor station and use key fobs to enter the building, use the stairs and elevators and enter their apartments and individual rooms. Community Assistants living on each floor serve a similar role to resident assistants, although they have less disciplinary authority.

For fourth-year chemical engineering major Nicole Marco, LightView seemed like a reliably safe living space. 

“The Hemenway fires last year really scared me, moving off campus to a place like that, just because there’s no way to really know if things work,” she said. “[Lightview] is more secure than most off-campus buildings, so not anyone can just walk in, which my parents love. So, it’s just kind of like more of a marriage between dorms and off-campus.”

Third-year political science and communication studies combined major Caleb Driesman said safety was also a positive for him. 

“My family didn’t feel comfortable with the security of Mission Hill,” he said. Driesman said he also wanted something more independent than the “hands on approach that Northeastern takes with their dorms, such as RAs, signing in all the time, inspections, all that sort of thing. LightView appeared to be some sort of medium between the two.”

Driesman said he now believes the security is more present than initially advertised. “It still feels fairly on-campus, I’d say. There’s a large amount of security on the building, and actually the security on this building is more intrusive than it is at Northeastern.” 

Living on campus can present unique challenges for third-year students, who are locked out of first- and second-year housing and limited by lower lottery numbers relative to fourth- and fifth-years. 

“If you’re a third-year, it’s pretty difficult to find campus housing,” Marco said. “There’s a lot of third-years who get totally screwed over by the housing process and go from being in West Village to like International Village when they really wanted a kitchen. So, it’s hard.” 

LightView, which added 825 bed spaces to Northeastern’s housing roster, was in part constructed to mitigate the school’s housing shortage. For many students, it presented an easier alternative to finding apartments in surrounding neighborhoods.

“After being off campus for last year, it’s been very convenient to live so close to campus,” said Blake Hatch, a third-year computer science major and transfer student. “Living on [Mission] Hill, I had some incidents where my bike got stolen and stuff. But just the general problem with living on the Hill for me is that if you have a sport practice and you have class and you’re doing something after practice, you have to basically bring all your stuff with you at all times.”

For many, LightView’s style and amenities were the main factors in their decision making, and the shared student spaces have proven to be particularly enjoyable.

“There’s usually people playing pool and a couple people watching TVs, so those get some use,” Hatch said. 

Others agree that the amenities are a standout factor. The gym, featuring a variety of cardio and strength equipment, is a student favorite. “You can kind of do what you want there, which is nice,” said Marco.

Some aspects of the apartments themselves are not meeting residents’ expectations. While the units are clean, modern and generally pleasant to live in, students mentioned concerns about thin walls, broken appliances and smaller spaces than advertised. 

“I have noticed the walls are just thin,” Marco said. “You can really hear everything through them. Everyone, I think, when they signed their lease, was kind of like, ‘Alright, what’s the catch?’”

Driesman also said he was not entirely impressed when he moved into his apartment. 

“It certainly is not what was marketed. Our oven wasn’t turned on when we first moved in, our air conditioners, one of them didn’t work, and the sink also was leaking so we had to call repairs for those,” he said. “All the furniture is pre-placed and it’s all very uncomfortable.”

Amid mixed reviews from students, LightView is in a rush to fill the units for next year, again on a first-come, first-served basis, and is already asking for students to consider re-signing their leases. 

“I was just informed that I have to decide on October 4 whether I’m gonna stay here, which I’m pretty not happy about because that’s such an insanely short amount of time to decide whether I want to stay here,” Hatch said. “There’s so much that can happen in the eight months after I sign on for next year that could make me not want to.”