The Buchanan

The Buchanan is a great place to live if you’re looking in Crystal City. The apartments are very large for the price that you’re paying and especially compared to other areas in Arlington like Shirlington, Courthouse, Clarendon, etc. The location is great because it’s right across the street from the entrance to the underground so you can walk through it during snowy or cold days without being outside in the elements for more than 30 seconds to get to the metro. Crystal City also has great offerings during the week like a farmer’s market, wine tasting nights, and a Sport & Health gym that will give you a waived sign-​up fee if you live at the Buchanan. The Buchanan also hosts parties with free food and booze every once in a while. Short notice, though. If you’re looking for a dog-​friendly building, you’ll find no better than the Buchanan. Their weight limit is very high so if you have a large dog, you’ll be okay. They have a dog park on the common area and even host some «yappy hours.» We’ve met lots of other dog owners and they’re all very friendly.
The things I didn’t like were the fact that management is slow and a bit lazy. They’ve recently changed a lot of staff so hopefully that will help alleviate issues like entering my apartment when I said to call first because I had a dog or losing packages. My two biggest issues with the building is that there are lots of irresponsible other tenants that smoke consistently and stink up the hallways. A big issue I had was that I was on the patio level and people would constantly throw things down onto my patio like cigarettes, food, etc. The worst was when we had glass shattered all over my patio and maintenance didn’t even come to clean it up after I reported it initially. The second is that since it’s an old building they are in charge of switching from A/​C to heat. All winter was super hot and I had to sleep with my window open throughout the winter since the steam heaters are VERY hot and will still continue to blow hot air into the apartment even if you turn off the thermostat.

Great location. No matter the weather, you can easily access the metro through a nice stroll outside or through the Crystal City Shops indoors. Blizzard? No problem. Sunny and 75? Also, phenomenal. 10 minute walk at most. When I input a service request, even when I set it to a ‘low priority’ level, it gets fixed that day or at worst the day after. All of the maintenance technicians are extremely nice. The staff in general at the Buchanan are friendly and easy to work with. Never had any problems with the neighbors. The noise is regulated because of the thick walls. The building itself is on the older side, as most things in the DC area are. There are a few minor annoyances such as having to pay every time you would like to do a load of laundry, but overall our experience has been excellent.

DO NOT MOVE INTO THE BUCHANAN. the management staff is extremely unprofessional and unhelpful. Stay away. Very old bldg that is not maintained or cleaned properly. Constant water outages, mold issues, elevator outages on a constant basis. And again, the staff in the leading office is subpar.

Please read before you consider living at this community.
We have lived here for 4 years and have watched The Buchanan steadily decline in service, value, and quality. We have lived in 2 different apartments on the top (most desirable and expensive) floor so can assess if the issues were specific to one apartment, which they were not. When we first moved in, the building was owned and managed by Archstone and was terrific. The staff was professional and courteous and maintenance fantastic. Since the sale to Gates Hudson, the building has consistently been run into the ground. We could not be happier to be moving out next week. In the interest of full disclosure, and to give you an accurate full picture of this community, I’ll organize into a list of pros and cons:
PROs
— Large apartments with lots of storage, especially for the price
— Lots of light with large windows
— Each unit has a very large private balcony
— Gas stove in kitchen
— Decent sized swimming pool and barbecue area
— Nice looking lobby and gym
— Solid concrete construction so noise between units is minimal, most noise comes from the hallways.
–Parking garage under building with reserved (more $$), unreserved, and free visitor parking.
–Proximity to metro. You can walk through the crystal city underground (indoors) and be at the metro in 10 minutes.
CONs
— Management staff are terrible. They smile and say yes to every request, but never follow through or actually know that they can do what they promise.
— Ridiculously high annual rent increases.
— Dated interiors with no effort to maintain much beyond the lobby. Hallways are dirty, apartments haven’t been updated in years.
— Laundry is shared on each floor in a laundry room that was recently updated to «energy efficient» (read way more expensive and do not work) machines. We now have to do our laundry at a laundromat to avoid spending $ 6 per load.
— The building’s systems are in a serious state of disrepair. The water is constantly being shut off for «emergency» repairs. The air condition does not work ever. Each time we’ve had a maintenance technician service our AC (at least 10 times) they’ve told us the only way the units will actually work is if the owner actually invested money in the system, rather than just bandaid fixes that do not work.
–The heat/​AC units in the apartments blow filthy mildewy air. The vents are black and stink.
— Building is not handicapped accessible, no matter what they claim. If you are in a wheelchair or have a shopping cart, or child in a stroller, this is not the place for you. There are no ramps, only broken wheelchair lifts, so you are forced to carry (in our case) a stroller up and down flights of stairs.
— The windows need to be replaced. They do not block out the considerable amount of street noise.
— The building can only have either the heat or AC on, and you have no control (or adequate warning) as to which one will be on so you are often forced to keep doors and windows open to regulate temperature.
— Units are not separately metered for utilities so you pay outrageous amounts in utilities (ours averaged $ 175/​mo for 2 br) despite our conscious efforts to conserve water and energy. You are paying a share of your floor’s consumption based on your square footage.
— Proximity to the fire station. This is a big one. Since the AC is terrible, and once the heat is on your windows must be open, you (and in our case, our baby) will be awoken at all hours by horns honking, trucks backing up and engine breaking, and insane amounts of sirens.
— Gates Hudson still cannot figure out how to promptly deliver packages to residents. The front desk staff is always buried under boxes and takes hours (usually 7 – 8) to log packages into the system before they’ll let you pick them up. We’ve seen it take days to receive a delivery. Their «new» computerized system of package alerts has been broken for the 2 years since it was introduced.
–If you want to live in a college dorm, this is the place for you! Loud parties, slamming doors, and people loitering in the halls are a common occurrence.
— Ants, cockroaches, mold. We are very clean and have had problems with all three in both of our apartments with no help from management. When we’ve complained, they put down ant traps that don’t work, and have spray painted kills to seal over black mold.
— Elevators are consistently out of service. For a building with over 400 units and 4 elevators, and 2 freight elevators, it is imperative that they are functional. Unfortunately at least one elevator is always broken, as well as the freight elevators always being locked and not available for use. This spring we had 1 elevator functioning for weeks on end, so it would take 10 – 15 minutes to get downstairs.
–Staff turnover. It seems that Gates Hudson either fires or forces out any good staff that work here. Because of the extremely high turnover rate and lack of training we’ve seen so many staff have no idea how to do their job and adm

If I could give a negative review I would. So here it is. This place is great if you have someone else paying the bill or you don’t care about being treated like crap. The building is old and there are almost always problems with the elevators, heat, AC, parking garage, toilet, garbage disposal, etc. the management is rude and not very helpful. When you sign a lease it’s like signing with the devil. When it’s time for you to move out they will quote all these random clauses in your lease to charge you thousands of dollars extra, even though you will leave the apartment in great condition. In the 2 months we have notice, we were quote 4 different rates, 7 different policies, and treated like we were criminals. Basically once you move in you aren’t of value anymore to the saleswoman who was so «nice» in the beginning. Buyer beware! STAY AWAY and live somewhere where you feel respected and treated like a person.

I suppose the best place for me to begin my review of the Buchanan starts at my visit to tour the property. Caitlin, the leasing agent, showed my roommates and I a few 3 bedrooms and we ultimately decided on choosing one on the 10^th floor. When we told her about our friend who recommended us to the building, she made an anti-​semitic comment about our friends parents who signed the lease with her. This would serve as an indication of the professionalism I found at the Buchanan during my year living there. Belinda, the other leasing agent, accused me of being a non-​resident and mooching during the building’s holiday party, while Josh the property manager required us to clean a few pieces of small furniture out of the trash room when we moved out or face a $ 300 cleaning fee when they regularly take trash on behalf of other residents. All in all, I must say my issues were largely with the staff at the building.
Besides them, the building was pretty good. It is very much a «you get what you pay for» sort of situation. No crazy bargain. The gym is small but good. The pool is the nicest amenity the building offers. The laundry services are very unreliable. The dryers would never dry a load in one cycle, even if it was just 3 towels. The appliances are not brand new, but they got the job done. The apartments and individual bedrooms are huge, each one could easily hold two people. The proximity to the metro is nice, especially with the tunnel system across the street. I would recommend this to someone for a year, but I honestly could not imagine staying longer than that.

I have lived here the better part of a year. The building has a little age on it which I think can be expected because it is 40 plus. The apartments are very large and a bit dated rent is resonable for space. I am moving out in July because of a job transfer. I have found the managment to be excellent and I have had some work orders placed for dishwasher, sink repair, some electronic issue with the stove, in all cases the repair was completed immediatly.
The managment staff, Belinda, Daya & Martin are alwasy friendy and have been very respectful of me as a tenant.
The front desk is generally attentive and notification of package deliver has always been prompt. (this place has over 400 units, it’s like Christmas with package delivery).
Parking is ample, I pay 50 a month for space on B2 and there is always parking. If you want reserved it’s 100 a month on B1.
It’s a 5 block walk to Crystal City Metro and you just have to walk across the street from the apartment building to accesss tha mall, so covered walk which is much appreicated during winter.
Crystal City itself is tranforming from a commuter area to a residentual mixed, there are many excellent restaurants on 23^rd street and Crystal City Drive, the best being the happy hour at Ruth Chris and McCormicks, entertaining with Freddy’s (Drag Shows) and range from Chipoltle, Chick Filet to expensive Mortons.
Crystal Ciy could use a closer grocery store, I can’t even imagine how great it would be to add Whole Foods or Trader Joes here! Still not far to Costco or Harris Teater (Glebe & Jeff Davis).
I found auto debit an easy way to pay for Rent & Utilities.
Gym is adequate and rarely crowded, there is a sport Club close by on Crystal City Drive if you want a bigger gym.
Negatives: No washer and dryer in unit & expensive washers/​dryers that don’t always work especially the dryer, need to run twice on high to get clothing to dry, fluxuates.
Handicaped access: there are stairs to get into the building and out of parking garage, the lifts provided are a little cumberson and this adds to time of getting in and out of the building, understandable since the building was built along time ago and regulations for disabled persons have changed over time.
Elevators: I leave for work at 6:40 am and home by 5 however of the four passanger elevators from the lobby rarealy are all working and there are waits occasionally. Moving in and out, plan ahead as the low side elevators have been non functional the better part of my residency here.
Neighbours: Generally folks are friendly. There is daily free coffee provided in the billard room and several restaurant events, free breakfast or other planned events have occured to create a positive sence of community.
WiFi is free in the lobby, that said, how great would it be for the bulding to provide free wifi and basic cable! I have a lot of suggestions and I realize all would add to rent but improve quality of life.
There are 5 restaurants in the building: Chilies, Bar Louie, Charlie Changs, Buffao Wild Wings and California Torilla… easy taxi access and UBER easy to catch close to the airport. Some folks walk to the airport there are a number of airline employees living here.
Demographics: Building is mostly working age folks, ethnically mixed.
Balancing out all factors I’d move back to this buildign in the future if I get transfered back and I have no problems reccomending it.

The entrance is cool historical looking but really old. Each floor has different food smells. It seems people has to spend lots of money for washer and dryer. The gym is quite small.
But the location is pretty good. They have a small supermarket and a salon in the building. And many free events.
The rent is ok with the military discount.
Their free coffee and tea are various!

This place is perfect for flight crews!!! So spacious (seriously, I have too much space…), the 24 hour concierge means you can get your packages whenever. The maintenance people will fix anything, and they’re timely about it. The area is a lot of fun, and close to everything you could possibly need! My only issue is that cell phone service is kind of crappy in our apartment.

I’ve lived here for a few years and it’s been great. The apartments are huge (I’m in a 963 sq. ft. one bedroom) with really good closet space. The leasing office, especially Belinda, has always been easy to work with and very responsive. On the occasions I’ve needed repairs done, someone has come within hours or faster, including on a holiday and on weekends. The building is a little older, but it’s well maintained. The workout room was redone within the last couple of years and has a lot of equipment. The location is great — very close to the airport (not that you can hear it on my side of the building), metro and VRE. I definitely recommend living here.

Loved living at the Buchanan!
I was here for a one year lease and had zero complaints. The parking garage was a little tricky to figure out at first, but I got the hang of it after a short while.
Belinda and Caitlin from the leasing office were always helpful. Got in a bit of a bind towards the end of my lease, but lo and behold, Belinda came to my rescue.
Awesome staff, great building, perfect location, and the amenities were all on point. If you happen to swing through the Buchanan, be sure to check out the gym. Can’t beat the location either, the building’s right on top of a Legal Sea Foods, Bar Louie, and Buffalo Wild Wings. Metro’s also super close by. Go across the street, and you can navigate through the underground shops that lead to the Metro. Super convenient for rainy/​cold days.
I’m only leaving the Buchanan to move to DC. I plan on relocating to Cali soon, and just wanted to have a DC address at least once, ha.
Lease at the Buchanan, and you won’t regret!

The Buchanan is lovely in a lot of ways. Nice front desk staff, pretty lobby, fun holiday parties and bagel breakfasts, and the apartments are spacious with nice balconies.
Our problem is with noise. I don’t know what it is about the shape of the courtyard or the materials of the balconies, and maybe it’s just the location of our place in the corner, but the way the acoustics are, if anyone is on their balconies nearby, we can hear the conversations like they’re in the room with us. And closing the windows or doors doesn’t get rid of the noise.
It’s annoying but fine when it’s a normal conversation at 8 PM. It’s unbearable when it’s college kids or post-​grads (which there are a lot of) partying and playing music until 2 – 4 AM. The front desk can’t (or doesn’t) really do anything, so the only recourse is to call the cops. That plus the dropped drinks over the edge of the balcony raining down makes it feels like I’m back in a dorm.
So if you don’t mind that kind of thing, come on in. But for the price, I’d like a little bit more comfort and peace.

The leasing office is incredibly difficult to work with once you move in. I would highly recommend to all my friends never to get involved with the Buchanan. They nickle and dime you, they are not forthcoming, and they make leaving incredibly difficult. Do yourself a favor and stay away!

Was a nice place to live. Some amenities and great concierge. Over priced and small square footage. Also watch for low introductory lease fees then a large renewal fee. They quickly move to renewal without notifying you!
Close and convenient to Metro which is good because parking garage fees are high and at times spaces are limited!
But if you work at the Pentagon it beats a long commute.
Try renting a room from locals, that works as well. Many offer all the amenities and parking at a lower price.
Lots of near by restaurants by foot and that helps.
Well that sums it up. You decide!
There are better local apartments but there are worse!
Supply and demand dictate
Best
T

I have lived at the Buchanan for a year and my experience has been very delightful.
I rate the apartment a 5 because I believe it deserves that based on it’s value for the price, location, and amenities. The bottom line is that the DC housing area is very expensive. The Buchanan offers rooms that are much more reasonably priced than DC or even other parts of Arlington. With that being said, I have not found a place at this price that offers a gym, pool, and coffee services in DC. So if you are willing and can afford to spend well over $ 2k for a one bedroom, then yes, I do recommend another location. If you are like me and prefer to save a little and don’t mind the short commute, then this place is very ideal.
I enjoyed walking indoors to catch the metro. It saved me from the rain, snow, and less pleasurable weather conditions. I personally get cold easily, so I was happy to be indoors for most of my commute.
The apartments themselves are not modern or new buildings, but the staff is great about being responsive for any fixes. The few times I needed maintenance assistance, they were responsive and took care of my issue within a timely manner.
I especially enjoyed the staff. Ashley and Caitlin were the most helpful people I encountered there and always welcomed me with a warm greeting.
All in all, I believe this place is great value for the area and I enjoyed living here.

AVOID THIS PLACE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!!! Living here was a nightmare to me, I’m happy that I have left this apartment and found a place that’s cheap and friendly.
Below are a few facts about this apartment:
1. The staff are very rude, impatient and have attitude problem. Every time when you talk to the lady in the leasing office she’s rude and tries to insult you! The small black girl in the front desk who has strong accent is very unfriendly almost every time when you try to pick up your packages. You just don’t know why many of the staff behave so strange, seems like they have been tortured too much by their boss and think you own them a lot or what …
2. Everything in the apartment is old and unreliable. The microwave oven was broken two weeks after we moved in, we talked to them several times and they replaced it reluctantly. We have to ask them to come to our apartment to fix the refrigerator every two weeks because it will stop working every two weeks, as this happened quite a few times and we could not bare it any more we asked for a replacement and they replaced the broken one with something that’s even older and dirty and smelly… The AC makes annoying noises like whistles and they told us we have to turn the wind speed to the lowest level then we figured out the best way is to turn the AC off completely and never use AC in our apartment… The door of a closet fell off one year after we lived here…
3. There are leakage everywhere, I don’t know how many holes they have drew on the walls on the floor that we live, but there are at least three big holes in our apartment as they were trying to identify the sources of leakages…
4. The basement parking garage is flooding now and then, I was quite worried that my car and so many cars of others would drown someday, and I don’t have to worry about this any more since I’ve moved out
5. As mentioned by others, we also see bugs in our apartment for a few times
6. The rent is way too high, if you’re looking for an apartment at Crystal City, see Crystal House, Crystal Plaza, Crystal Tower, and so many others before you make your decision to live here.

Do you like black mold growing in your apartment?!? Then The Buchanan is the place for you!
Not only was I BLAMED for the mold growing in my unit (I don’t know how one grows black mold on a wall as I’m not a scientist, and certainly wouldn’t intentionally put a potentially deadly material in my bedroom), but once upper management caught wind of the problem, they denied it was mold at all, in essence calling me a liar. Of course, this was AFTER they sent out maintenance that confirmed yes, it was in fact mold, and that yes, the affected wall needed to be removed. What a great place to live!!!
I lived here for 2 great years when it was an Archstone building, but when Gates Hudson bough the building, everything went south fast, mold catastrophe aside. The building is now run down, the hallways are dirty and crown molding is usually hanging from the ceiling. The units themselves have not been updated in about a decade and the carpets and walls are dirty in apartments and in common areas. Just stay far away.
Unless, of course, you’re a scientist and you need a wall to practice your black mold-​growing skills on… Then the Buchanan is calling your name!

Been here for a year now. The place is clean, staff are very friendly. Is it over priced? Yes, but that is Crystal City.
Anytime I have had any problems what so ever, it has been fixed in 24 hrs or less.
Would recommend to anyone

I agree with another poster who mentioned that any reviews pre-​2012 aren’t applicable. I lived in two different apartments in this building and I can honestly say that I loved living in an Archstone building. The staff was awesome, management was responsive, and while the rent was expensive, I felt I was getting my money’s worth. You really can’t beat the location, but there were nice amenities. They did upgrade the gym, so that’s larger now, and the pool was nice and enjoyable with friends. Furthermore, the apartments are HUGE with so much storage. These are pluses for sure, but there are some big minuses that soured my whole 2 years of living in the building.
Once Gates Hudson took over management, everything changed. Front desk staff became nasty and unresponsive. Management is beyond inept. My roommate and I received a notice before we decided to move out that our rent was going to increase. My roommate called up to inquire about it and was told that those were actually sent to everyone in error and our rent was going down, slightly. OK, time to get your stuff together, people. We were given several different answers from different people when we were in the process of moving out. It seemed like whenever we called and had a question, no one knew exactly what the policies were. We finally did move out, in August. When I handed in my keys, I was not given a bill nor was I contacted for a forwarding address for any charges to be assessed after we officially moved out. I received a message from my old roommate this morning saying she had received a notice that we owed $ 600 in utilities from June through August! Just in case you’re noticing the date on this post, it’s now the middle of November. My roommate and I were out by the middle of August. They ‘say’ that they sent something in October but neither she nor I received anything, and we certainly don’t believe them. Due to our past experiences with management, we just can’t trust that they sent something when they say they did, nor can we believe that they will be able to look back through our files and verify whether or not we paid those months of utilities. Unfortunately, neither of us kept detailed records of what was paid when we paid the rent. The utilities company is a couple of months behind when it comes to billing people (which is absurd since I have the same billing people for the water in my new place and I’m actually billed for the past month, not my usage for 3 months ago) so that’s another thing to beware of. The building is poorly insulated or the heating/​cooling system is terrible, which of course adds to your already expensive utilities. The hallways could use some serious renovation: the lobby is impressive enough, but when you get upstairs, the walls are painted pink and there’s noticeable nicks and scratches on the walls from other tenants. I would strongly caution against this place: there’s many other options in the Crystal City/​Arlington area that are just as convenient without all the hassle, even after you’ve been moved out for 4 months! And if you do move there, or are currently living there, keep all your payment records after you move!

Not recommended ANYMORE. When the Buchanan was owned by Archstone, it was great. When it was bought by Gates Hudson in 2012, service went down considerably. Any reviews pre-​2012 are no longer applicable.
I am a current resident, and will not be renewing my lease.
Downgrades in service since Gates Hudson assumed control:
1. Unfriendly staff. They’ll actually look down when they see you coming, as opposed to the Archstone staff that learned your name.
2. Pool policies. Up to summer 2011, you could have family over without hassle. Now it’s a maximum of two guests, and there is a charge per person.
3. Work orders. They use to be completed within 24 hours under Archstone. Now they take several days.
4. Packages. They take several days to notify you after receiving (I know from what packages had UPS confirmation notices). Despite promises of an online system, it has been months and no system is yet in place.
5. Online payment. Cannot be done without a convenience charge each time.
6. Hallway appearance. Due to problems with pipes, maintenance has had to open up the walls in the hallways. That’s fine, but do they have to re-​paint it with a different shade and leave dry wall dust on the carpet? Also lots of stains on carpets, some that have been there since I moved in last summer.
7. No more events for residents, such as little cookouts or bagel breakfasts.
Negatives carried over from the last owner:
1. Location next to highway. Some apartments face the street, which is a route for fire trucks. Also, there are ample honking cars due to the confusing intersection of 23^rd St and Rt. 1.
2. Smell. Third floor hallway (pool access) smells like rotten jello.
3. Rent hikes. After one year, my rent rose nearly $ 300.
4. Fitness center. Fairly small.
5. Washer/​dryers are dying. Cost $ 2 per load (i.e. $ 4 for one wash and dry).
6. Some kitchens out of date, with poor dishwashers and impossible-​to-​clean counters.