Unique Apartments (Arlington, Alexandria, Centreville: apartment complexes, rent, lofts)

[Templars]

Good Afternoon,

My girlfriend and I will be moving to Northern Virginia. I will be working in Tysoms Corner, and she will work 3 days from Bristow, VA and then one day in downtown DC and Silver Spring, MD. Budget is 1,600 thru $2,075 with 1 dog. Would like studio or 1 bedroom.

Two questions:

Ideas on where to live? I generally work in the office from 8:15 a.m. through 7 p.m. and therefore like a short commute when possible. In addition I travel frequently so airport access is appreciated but DCA / IAD appears to be an hour from anything give or take depending on mileage.

Are there any condo developments, apartments, or lofts that are not your typical cookie cutter building? I don't know where I'm going with this, but something along the lines of "different" like a converted Wearhouse, cottage in the woods or a modern glass masterpiece? I don't really care about SQFT but when I get home I just want a bathroom, maybe a bed, and quiet darkness in a furfilling room.

Thanks so much,

Liam

[Plokivos]

Apparently, you should live in Centreville, which is in the middle.

airport?
Did you mean:
Manassas Regional/harry P. Davis Field?

I don't know.

Why can't you plug in some addresses on map.google.com and figure it out yourself? You know why nobody's answered this post, because it's lazy, and for $2k, you're not going to get anything unique. Hell, I've been looking for a place to live that's not cookie cutter for 3 years and every non cookie cutter places cost $5000 and up.

Get in your car, online and figure it out.

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by Plokivos

Apparently, you should live in Centreville, which is in the middle.

airport?
Did you mean:
Manassas Regional/harry P. Davis Field?

I don't know.

Why can't you plug in some addresses on map.google.com and figure it out yourself? You know why nobody's answered this post, because it's lazy, and for $2k, you're not going to get anything unique. Hell, I've been looking for a place to live that's not cookie cutter for 3 years and every non cookie cutter places cost $5000 and up.

Get in your car, online and figure it out.

That's uncalled for - questions like his are common for this forum. He posted at 9:30 last evening. Likely more people will answer today, as the highest volume of posters appears to be between 8am -5pm, M-F.

And by airport, he meant Dulles or Reagan (IAD/DCA).


OP, you will be hard pressed to find any unique apartments/condos. I'm sure others who are more familiar with that part of NoVA and the commutes from those parts will chime in with suggestions on locations.

[Templars]

Originally Posted by Plokivos

Apparently, you should live in Centreville, which is in the middle.

airport?
Did you mean:
Manassas Regional/harry P. Davis Field?

I don't know.

Why can't you plug in some addresses on map.google.com and figure it out yourself? You know why nobody's answered this post, because it's lazy, and for $2k, you're not going to get anything unique. Hell, I've been looking for a place to live that's not cookie cutter for 3 years and every non cookie cutter places cost $5000 and up.

Get in your car, online and figure it out.

Good Morning,

I appreciate your assistance. Luckily there have been several apartment buildings that were easily located and I have visited four of them. At first, I mainly viewed flats in Vienna, Dunn Loring, and Tysons. While none of them were neccessary out of budget, they were all just boring and uninspiring. The purpose behind this post was to see if anyone had creative ideas or local insight that I may have missed.

I apologize that you have been unable to find a residence that meets your expectations and wish you the best. I will continue to search, and the worst case scenario is that I'll end up in a nice 1 bedroom apartment in a new cookie cutter development. Not the end of the world.

Thanks,

Liam

[spencgr]

What do you consider a "short" commute for yourself; and how long is your girlfriend willing to commute?

Unfortunately, your budget and desire for short commute make finding "unique" living very difficult. It's out there, but expensive (carriage house conversion in DC) or really far (horse farm cottage in Loudoun).

[Middlin]

Yeah, that's going to be tough in NoVA. Agree with the other poster, DC or out in the country you would be more apt to find something more unique. The longer you're here, you will be surprised how much you will value an easier commute over most things.

Given these parameters, I would focus your search near the Vienna or Dunn Loring metro stops. Vienna offers easy access to 66 and will give your girlfriend a better commute going to Bristow and a short commute for you. Going west is generally a reverse commute as most commuters are coming east, but as the region continues to grow, reverse commuting is getting more congested.

[Fundman]

In Virginia you are more likely to find unique apartments in older homes/townhouses that were subdivided into separate units. Most likely to see this in order areas like Old Town Alexandria or Arlington. All the large apartment complexes are very cookie cutter.

[te3tu]

A bit late to this thread, but I would recommend taking a look at the condos/apartments right around the Tysons Galleria. There are definitely some non-garden gems. I would recommend against living outside of the Tysons area; the commute from Arlington isn't bad (based on what my co-workers have told me), but commuting anywhere west of Tysons will not be fun. Easier for your girlfriend to reverse commute to Bristow.

I would agree with the other posters about budget; however, one new option is Ovation at Park Crest. Building isn't quite done yet, but it's supposed to be opening up in the next six months. Based on the price sheet they gave me, they have studios starting just above $2K (with 1 month of "free" rent promo). The apartments and building there are definitely on the more modern side, nice, and pretty out-of-the-box for the area. I actually wrote a review about the building and the apartment they showed me (I went in to take a look since they just opened up for tours last weekend). I'd love to post the link in this thread but can't because of too low of post count—if you're still interested send me a PM and i'm happy to forward it along or discuss further.