Canvas Apartments

Most Recent Comments

• August 2024 by Gloria
  Nice place to live, for the price especially. Close to transit stops to downtown and lower Queen Anne. The maintenance team, specifically Olu, have been great and super responsive with maintenance requests.
• July 2024 by daniela diaz
  I lived there for 15 months by myself and I felt as safe as you could be in the crazy city of Seattle. Had one encounter with a homeless person trying to get into the building but that was handled by emergency services. Rooftop deck was my favorite part of the amenities. A 20 min easy walk Pike Place or waterfront. Fast at answering work orders. I paid an additional $$$ for parking spot and it was worth it since street marking is limited and full by 5pm. No noise level was low but you can hear everything walking down the hallways.
• June 2024 by Mandy's Rain
  What a cute place, very clean and great views
• May 2024 by michael farias
  We just moved into the Canvas apartments and the staff here has been so very helpful. We even accidentally dropped our car keys down the elevator shaft (oh no) and they got them back to us the same day (wow!) Thank you Juan, Olu, Kyle and Carrie! So far, this place has been great!
• May 2024 by Jen
  Maybe this place is ok if you live in the main building, but do not live in the townhomes off of Elliott. I had homeless people try to get into the apartment on multiple occasions. There is a tiny house village across the street. People are constantly throwing trash on the ground as they walk between the village and the liquor store next door. I once came home to someone sleeping in my doorway. More than once, I had people smoking pills in my doorway. There's no weight restrictions on dogs, and another residents dog attacked mine. (Mind you I'm disabled and use a wheelchair). For as much as this place costs, you shouldn't be afraid to go outside at night.
  
  It gets two stars as the rooftop is nice, and theoretically the grill will be functioning soon per other residents I still talk with. Also, they apparently opened a gym. The unit itself was pretty good. Things didn't break. Everything worked as expected. There isn't enough hot water to fill a hot bath, but that's the energy efficient stuff for you.
  
  There is no leasing office, although you can reach the staff via email. They usually respond in a day or two. However, when I moved in they rented me the WRONG apartment. It was supposed to be a townhouse that isn't on Elliott. As I was having surgery 8 days later, I had no choice but to accept the mistake and move into the unit. The maintenance person said it wasn't the first time that had happened either. They are horribly disorganized. It took days to get the lease figured out. The few staff people run way too many buildings to be effective.
  
  Do yourself a favor and don't live here.
• April 2024 by AlireZa Ahmadian
  The building is great, everywhere is clean. The management of the building is always trying to make everything better. They work hard. I am very happy to live in this building
• February 2024 by Tyler J
  I feel Canvas is trying to listen to residents and understand residents' concerns. I can see things are getting better and believe they will improve many things that residents enjoy living here and calling it a secured and safe home. I think one great thing to add here is Canvas's maintenance staff. They are really down to earth and always willing to help out. They actually have helped me out a lot and I feel I'm grateful so thank you.
  
  The reason why I gave 4 stars not five is the utilities fees are very high...
• December 2023 by Kacha Angeline
  Management sucks. You never hear from them when you need them. Parking situation here is trash your chances of getting towed is pretty high, and on top of that garage parking is $250.
• November 2023 by Sara Acquavella
  For the amount we paid to live here it wasn’t worth it. Maintenance is nice but that’s about it. You can never get anyone on the phone and there is no leasing office. They doubled the fee for trash out of no where with no warning! There are barely any amenities as well. No gym, no grill on the roof, and no community events. Essex company as a whole is garbage and I would strongly recommend not living at any of their properties. Avoid the headache of them taking your money and not answering the phone when you have questions.
• September 2023 by Keval Shah
  This property is a nice place to live if you don't care about the amenities, convenience, management support, neighbors smoking, and thin ceiling walls.A positive note about maintenance staff is that they are awesome and super courteous. They would attempt to resolve any issues within their domain as soon as you create a maintenance request.On the other hand, to talk to property management, you'd have to go through terrible wait times with automated answering service just to get redirected to voicemail. And good luck getting a response for the message you left within 10 days. Also, management will hold you on a technicality and try to squeeze as much money as they can out of you even after you move out. Worst experience in the states so far.
• February 2023 by Simi Dalyop
  I want to start this by saying you should save yourself the heartache and not move here. Here’s why…..1. Before moving in, I got a rep who always check on me to ensure my application was fine. The moment I signed the lease, that rep disappeared and so was every staff. I expected some kind of communication before my move in date but no one reached out. A day after my move in date, a rep kept calling me to pay my rent and sign some paper works. The moment I signed and paid my bills, that rep also disappeared and left me stranded in a new place with no direction. I didn’t know where the trash rooms are or how to card someone in. Canvas has no welcome package or guidebook for new renters which I find very disappointing. I kept calling to ask for these information and nObody picked my calls not until the next month when rent was due and they called me to tell me that I needed to pay rent on the first. I aired my concerns and disappointed to the staff for lack of communication and poor management service, but his response was ‘sorry we are short staff and we do our best next time’ .2. You pay market price for rent with litttle amenities. The apt has a closet size gym with one bike, elliptical, and treadmill. Other apts have full blown gym.3. Management staff are non-existent, so good luck calling a number or email that never gets answered4. Utilities-I don’t have any evidence to back up my claims but I believe management inflate utility pieces for tenants because they believe people will pay. As an individual who barely is around due to the nature of my job, I just paid over $170 for trash, sewage and water ( and this is monthly). My trash fee was over $70 and sewage was over $80. Like who in the world uses that much trash or sewage? I asked my friends who live in similar apts how much they paid and they are averaging between 45-70 a month in utilities but Canvas just sent a price item to our portals to pay them without questions.4. Floor rugs in the hallway are stained and dirty, so if that matters to u, don’t do it.
• November 2022 by Joey K.
  Came to tour the apartments as a potential renter and I couldn't of had a worse experience. I had a scheduled appointment to view an available apartment, I arrived at the front of the building and used the call box to get in touch with the leasing office. First attempt no answer, second attempt a guy answers seemingly annoyed that I had called twice. I could barely hear him due to the traffic noise behind me. After some back and forth I was able to gain access to the building to start my tour. The building has a funky smell, the carpets in the halls were really gross, I got to the unit I was touring and it was the wrong one, super small studio that they converted to a one bedroom by sectioning off the bedroom. I texted the number that I was directed to text in my email that I was touring the wrong unit. I left that unit and went up to the roof, it was OK up there, nice view and lots of seating, but also piles of dog p*** throughout that I had to avoid stepping on. I never heard back from the leasing dept so I went down to the lobby to talk with them, no one was on site working. Over all very unprofessional and just not welcoming. The highlight of the visit was the small rat I saw when waiting for someone to answer the call box, he was very cute.
• October 2022 by Reine Abubakar
  The apartment units themselves are pretty standard and reasonable. I moved here a few years ago when it was owned by another company, and unfortunately since it was bought by another company from earlier this year, this building and its management has gone downhill very quickly.(1) MaintenanceThe maintenance staff are friendly and quick to respond on the online portal. However, just the general maintenance of the building has been less frequent. I could have sworn that roof cleanings and each floor's carpeting was more frequent with the previous management. Instead of frequent up-keeping, it seems the management waits till the carpets are filthy for them to begin any cleaning.(2) CommunicationManagement is incredibly slow to respond to my emails. I have contacted them over email several times with no response, and 99% of my phone calls go straight to voicemail or am disconnected. It's not my phone and this was not an issue before. There is no management staff located on the premises, making it virtually impossible to contact them. The only time I got a prompt response was when I was renewing my lease (before I understood these awful changes with new management). If they're not getting money out of you, good luck hearing from them.(3) After-Hours ServiceI came home one night a couple of weeks ago, and my key fob was not working. I could not access the garage or the building. I used the call box to contact after-hour services, and after verifying my identity, they told me someone would be sent to help me. After nearly 45 minutes of waiting in the cold (at night, alone), there was still nobody there. I had to wait for another resident to come home and plead for them to let me come into the building with them. I don't know why Canvas locked me out of my apartment (there was still no explanation as to why that happened), but there's no way locking out your residents is legal.(4) Organization and PaymentsAfter the key fob fiasco, I managed to get help from the maintenance folks to get my key re-activated. They told me that they had another number listed as my key fob, which was inaccurate. Don't know if this was electronic or manually entered, but it speaks to how organized the system is.A couple weeks later, I was charged an insurance non-compliance fee despite having updated my insurance, having it uploaded in the portal, and emailing it to management. I tried contacting them via email and phone, but of course, no answer. There's no way this is legal.Don't rent here if you can help it. There are lots of other good options in the area around the same price range! You can bet I'm not renewing here when the lease is up.
• August 2022 by Alicia
  I would not recommend living here if you have other options and budget is not a big constraint. There are several new apartment buildings in the lower Queen Anne/Seattle Center area that are better than this. I’ve lived at Canvas for 3 years after having lived in a luxury high rise building downtown that was just getting too expensive. That building (Premiere on Pine) has A/C and is amazing in terms of amenities and staff and I didn’t expect Canvas to measure up. However, the trade off was a really great loft unit at Canvas with a good amount of outdoor space that I didn’t have before for a much lower price than I was paying downtown. The great unit style I snagged at Canvas was worth the general building downgrade until now.The first two years at Canvas were great! The office and maintenance staff were friendly and reliable. Since Essex property management has taken over in the last year, there’s been a noticeable decline in upkeep of the building. When I first moved here, the rooftop deck was always in good shape, the windows and patios were power washed a couple times a year, and the hall carpets were cleaned a couple times a year. I can’t remember the last time any of this has happened. The carpets on the interior of the building are disgusting. The rooftop is dusty and gross. I tried to go up to the roof and get some work done last week in the sun and all the cushions on furniture in the sun were missing for some reason. The shaded couches that did have cushions were covered in spider webs so I just went back to my apartment. There are always issue with the trash compactor and the trash chutes fill up by Thursday so you have to wait to take out garbage for 4 days until Monday if you don’t remember to throw your stuff out in time. I’ve lived in much bigger apartment buildings than this with more residents in both Seattle and NYC and have never had this blocked up trash chute issue.Recently, Essex had new smart locks installed on all unit doors. Emails were sent out to residents with a link to their new keypad lock code. 24 hours after my new lock was installed, I left my house with my keys and without my phone out of habit. When I got back, I realized I was locked out and did not have my phone to look up my new lock code. When I went to the office for help, there was a sign on the door that said staff would no longer be on-site at the building with a generic Essex phone number posted. I was able to borrow another resident’s phone to call Essex and no one answered. I left a panicked voicemail not sure how to get back into my apartment. Luckily, I ran into maintenance staff but they couldn’t help me because Essex had not given anyone on-site emergency access to the new keypad smart lock system. After 45 minutes, maintenance was able to get a hold of some project manager who could provide a code. There’s no excuse for this kind of poor project pplanning and service. No one from Essex ever called me back so I’m not sure what I would have done to get back into my apartment short of smashing a window or breaking down my own door.The only good thing I can say is that the on-site maintenance staff have remained friendly, helpful, and responsive. They do what they can with what seems to be minimal support from Essex. Essex has the nerve to raise rent when they’re providing next to nothing to residents. I bought a house so I’m moving out in 2.5 months and fully expect to have some issue getting my deposit back. Even if I was continuing to rent, I would not choose to renew my lease at Canvas under this property manager. Think long and hard before you sign a lease here if you are considering other building options in the area.The area is a little sketchy for two reasons: 1) Canvas is located on Elliott Ave, a very busy street near a somewhat industrial part of Interbay. 2) there are a lot of transient people at a new covid support/halfway house of sorts that was built across the street during the pandemic. But that’s not the building’s fault and I chalk that up to the reality of living near downtown in a major city.
• July 2022 by Addison Elkins
  Nice apartments with convenient, well thought-out floor plans in a descent location for a reasonable cost. I lived at Canvas for four years and overall enjoyed it! Unfortunately, the management company is playing typical "management-company games" with me of withholding too much from my deposit and not communicating with me regarding discrepancies after moving out. This is driving what would be a four or five star review to be a one-star review.I've given scores for what I see as important in picking someplace to live and provided some details on my experience living at Canvas. For context, I lived in a "Picasso" floor plan facing Elliott Bay.Location (3/5) : I overall enjoyed the location due to the proximity to the Elliott Bay Trail, the great views of Elliott Bay from the rooftop, quick driving-access to Ballard and downtown, and the walk-ability to Lower Queen Anne. If you are facing Elliott Ave., you can expect a fair bit of road noise. If you want to be in a neighborhood setting, you might want to consider looking elsewhere as amenities within a two - three minute walk are limited (full grocery store, multiple restaurants, etc.). With that said, there is a small convenience store/gas station and one restaurant right next door.Apartment Layout / Design (4/5): At 526 square feet, my unit always felt very livable for myself. It is an open one-bedroom design (sliding door on the "room" with a wall that only goes 75% to the ceiling). The location of the bedroom in the unit is brilliant. It is in the middle of the unit, distancing you from both the hallway and Elliott (if you're facing the bay), which really helps cut down on noise in the room itself at night.Climate (2/5): There is no air conditioning. My unit facing the bay would get very VERY hot in the summer due to the long afternoons with direct sunlight. While the traditional thinking in Seattle is that it gets cool in the evening and you can open your windows to cool off, there are two things that make this difficult in the Picasso unit, being: 1) facing Elliott Ave, it was always too noisy with road noise to comfortably leave the window open, especially when it was time to sleep. This might not be a problem on a non-Elliott-facing unit. 2) the only window in the Picasso unit is a sliding glass door. This makes it impossible to generate a cross-breeze in the unit which keeps the warm air in and the cool air out.Maintenance (5/5): Maintenance was always quick to respond and addressed my issues promptly and completely.Security (4/5): No matter how you enter the building, you needed to scan through two fob-readers to get to the living area. This means that if one reader was broken or one door unlocked for some reason, there was always, theoretically, a second line of defense for security. This always made me feel comfortable. There were two or three instances of people breaking into the parking garage while I lived there over a four+ year period. While unfortunate, I see this as low considering living in the city. For example, I've only lived in my new location for two months and there have already been two break-ins to the garage!Amenities (4/5): I really enjoyed the rooftop deck. It had great views of the sound and it was great to go up there and grill. The gym was small, but rarely used.Noise (2/5): I almost never heard my neighbors on either side of me, however, the ceilings/floors are THIN! For a period of time while I lived there my upstairs neighbors had very noisy parties which was a drag... Besides that, you can definitely hear your upstairs neighbor walking around. Pretty typical apartment-living stuff, but now you know :)Overall, if you're looking for a decently-priced apartment in a decent location, I'd recommend Canvas. Just beware of management as they'll scam you out of your money!