First, the pros: The building is lovely, and kept in great condition -- very clean! -- and it is pretty secure. There's an attached garage (extra fee for a space reservation, obviously) and the shared laundry facility has 3 washers and 3 dryers.
All the tenants are nice, and the units are very beautiful and spacious, especially for a historic building on Cap Hill. It is by far the most beautiful place I've ever lived in Seattle.
Now, the cons: soundproofing is TERRIBLE. I've lived in a few places throughout the years, and this place is by far the worst when it comes to soundproofing. You can hear upstairs and next-door neighbors pretty easily, even when they're not doing anything terribly loud -- you can just hear it all. And even on the top floor, I find that I can even hear my DOWNSTAIRS neighbors walking and talking, which is an entirely new thing I haven't experienced elsewhere. I can only imagine what my own neighbors hear from me.
You get a lot of outside noise coming in, which can get annoying if you're at the basement or street level, or on the side where The Lookout is in general. And for the same reason why outside noise comes pouring in, you also get a lot of heat / cooling loss. This building needs to upgrade to actual double-pane windows.
So, to summarize --
Pros: spacious, clean, safe, beautiful, nice tenants
Cons: unusually loud (and not necessarily because of the tenants) read more