In reading some of the previous reviews, I've noticed that most of the gripes people had with their experience at the Charleston might very well have been their own fault. The "fat guy with the goatee" who one reviewer thinks is the "owner's son" is actually the owner, and if he is constantly mentioning things to you as you exit the building, then you're probably doing something wrong. There are very clear-cut guidelines for living at the Charleston--rules that help keep the appearance of the building nice and help keep things running smoothly. For instance, if you're moving a couch into the building, you're supposed to use the garage entrance in the basement instead of the front glass double-doors. This prevents the lobby of the building from getting dinged and scratched. Also, when you ask the staff at the desk to hold open the garage door, they'll most likely offer you some dollies to help you in your move. Another rule: if you have a one bedroom apartment, you can't have like 8 people living there. This is a constant problem that some tenants don't seem to understand...and yes, the owner will likely get on your case about it. Too many people mean an unfair drain on the utilities that the building covers, fewer parking spots for everyone else, etc.
This building was built in the 1950s. Because of that, it does have some trace elements of a kitschy aesthetic in some of the appliances and so forth. However, it's really not that dated. The apartment I live in has a brand new refrigerator, brand new range/oven, and a new window air conditioner for the living room. I got my brother-in-law's old window A/C for my bedroom and I'm all set with cooling in the summer. The heat in the winter is perfect, too, I think--sometimes even too hot, where you might want to crack a window.
My wife and I have added some curtains to our killer view of the entire Salt Lake Valley, and we've hosted a few small cocktail parties for our friends there. We're impressed with our view and the space we have, and we pay what I think is a very low rent for such a space.
The location is perfect for us too. We are both graduate students at the University of Utah--as are many of the tenants--and with the building being two blocks from the campus shuttle stop, one block from the Trax light rail, and with a city bus stop right outside the front door, this is the perfect location for me. This is a very quiet building, too.
As for maintenance, we've had a backed-up drain, a leaky faucet, and some other typical things, but each time we had our maintenance requests completed within a day. The maintenance guy even saw how we had the A/C rigged in the living room window and when we came home from school one day we found he had taken the A/C unit and set it into a proper plywood brace for the window, painted it clean white, and caulked it airtight. We've received nothing but good service from the maintenance guy.
I think those who complain the most about bad service from the office staff, the owner, or the maintenance guy are probably the tenants who behaved the worst, were the rudest, or we just overall crappy tenants. They're probably the ones who had big parties at their apartment at late hours and had their friends park in the handicap spaces and fire zones. And they're probably the ones who scratch up the lobby and the front glass doors moving their cheap dorm furniture into the building the wrong way. They're probably also the ones who don't treat the office staff with respect and think they are to wait on them hand and foot. Heck, they are probably the ones who were always late on their rent or didn't follow any of the policies of the building.