Bad Apartment Design

Some apartments in Davis have "features" that make you wonder what the designers were thinking. If you have a notable bad design feature in your apartment, list it here, along with the complex where that feature can be found. Some examples of bad design:

• Kitchen cabinets that are too narrow to actually put anything in that you might be likely to find in a kitchen
• Kitchen cabinets with knobs or doors that intersect the path of the stove door
• Bathrooms that can not vent shower moisture, even with the fan on
• Light switches located in awkward locations or in the wrong rooms
• Locks that prevent residents who have already gone through a lock from accessing something without going through a second lock
• Areas of the apartment that are unusable for their normal purpose
• Walls that do not shield neighbors from normal amounts of noise
• Appliances or fixtures that make living in your apartment worse, not better

Also see the Rental Housing Guide.

2008-09-23 20:31:41   The narrow kitchen cabinets are usually next to the oven and are useful for storing cookie sheets and wire racks vertically. —StephanieStudebaker

2008-09-23 21:26:29   I've recently come across cabinets that were completely filled by a roll of aluminum foil. In fact, I am looking at some cabinets that are either so narrow that nothing useful will fit in them (these are narrow AND have shelves in them, so cookie sheets and wire racks won't fit either). There are some cabinets that are wide enough to actually put something in, but they are about 7-8' off the floor or higher. (Really, these are only useful for storage for things you DON'T want to access very frequently!) Again, totally useless, since most people can't reach them. But there are no accessible cabinets that are large enough to contain reasonably sized dishes without bending over, standing on a stool, or leaving the kitchen completely. Note to the architect: People actually need a place to put things, and most people are not either 8' tall or 6" tall. —IDoNotExist