Excited about moving into your new home? Of course you are! Use this page as a guide for shopping, packing, and planning for life at 55th Street.
About Your Apartment
Apartments at 55th Street vary in size, housing between four and seven residents in two-bedroom units. Each bedroom can house between two to four people, depending on the size of the apartment.
Floor Plans
There are many different floor plan layouts for the 55th Street Residence Hall, so we do not post them all online. You will receive your floor plan when you get your room and roommate assignment via email during the summer.
Your assigned space - regardless of apartment size - will come with a bed with a mattress, desk, dresser, and closet or wardrobe space. All windows have blinds. Student rooms are not carpeted.
Beds are regular twin size and are either lofted or bunked. They can be moved once all roommates in your room have arrived. There is no need to bring bed risers, because you can change the height of your bed to any height to suit your preference. Lofted beds are approximately 5 and a half feet high at the bottom of the mattress. The space below the lofted bed is wide enough for both the desk and dresser to fit (this is our standard bed setup for lofted beds). Bed rails and ladders are available through our office.
Desks have a top keyboard drawer, along with three side drawers. They also have a back panel and a bookshelf above the desk section. A desk chair (wood) is also provided.
Dressers have either three drawers (about 3 feet wide by 2 feet long), or six drawers (about 2.5 feet wide by 2 feet long).
Closet spaces are approximately 2.5 feet wide and 2 feet deep. They have a shelf approximately 6 feet up, and have a clothing rod for hangers. Closets do not have covers; if you wish to hang something to section off your closet, you should get a tension rod which would work for a space about 2.5 feet wide.
Furniture Policy
The furniture provided in your room needs to stay in your room. You should not remove mattresses, chairs, bed pieces, or other furniture items provided from your room. These items may not be exchanged, replaced, or brought to other rooms in the building, so if you take your loft down, keep your bed pieces in your room.
Lounge and public area furniture and equipment are for everyone’s use. Residents will be charged a $25/day fine for furniture removal from the public areas.
Outside Furniture
At the time a resident first occupies a room, it will be clean and properly organized with appropriate furnishings. For health and safety reasons, students are prohibited from bringing their own furniture into the residence halls. Additional furniture items found within the residence hall will be removed and discarded. Residents responsible for the items will be charged a $100 fine per item.
Prohibited furniture includes:
Acceptable furniture includes:
Upholstered furniture
Office or rolling chairs
Wood furniture
Wooden book shelves
Futon couches or chairs
Bean bags
Pillow chairs
Any furniture containing cushions or stuffing (including butterfly chairs and papasan chairs)
Pillows longer than four feet
Butterfly, papasan, or tailgate chairs with nylon seats (no stuffing) that can be folded up
Metal or plastic shelves no larger than 48” tall
Plastic storage bins
We recommend moving in and checking out the space you have available before purchasing additional items.
Common Areas
Your common area will have a table and chairs. The size of the table depends on the size of the room.
The kitchen has a full size refrigerator and freezer, a microwave, stove top burners, and a sink. There are many cabinet and drawer spaces as well.
The bathroom has a shower and bathtub, toilet, sink with a lower cabinet, and a mirror with four sections of shelves behind it. Larger rooms with more occupants have either a mirrored vanity sink in the common area, or a second bathroom with a toilet, sink, mirror, and shelves.
Our residence halls are BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper). The shower has a rod, but hooks and shower curtain are not provided.
What To Bring
We want you to feel comfortable in your new home, but also remember you’ll be sharing the space with others. So bring what you need, but maybe not everything you own!
Common items that students need to bring include a shower curtain with hooks, dishes, and trash cans. Check with your roommates so you don’t end up with four or seven of these common items.
For information and examples of what to bring and what to leave at home, check out our boards on Pinterest!
Who Does What?
We fix any issues with appliances or equipment in the room. We’ll change the light bulbs included in the room. You change your own light bulb if you bring a lamp.
We clean before you get here, but you and your roommates need to clean your own room throughout the year. We do health and safety inspections each semester to make sure your living environment is safe and clean, so bring your cleaning supplies and set a cleaning schedule with your roommates.
You take out your own trash to the trash chute and send it down. You also take your recycling (did you know recycling is mandatory in NYC?) to the hallway recycling containers. We take it to the curb.
We provide a laundry facility in the building on the second floor, which is open 24 hours a day and runs on a card system. You buy the card, and you wash your own dirty clothes (but we can teach you how!).
You should talk to your roommates first about any problems. We will help facilitate this through roommate contracts and mediations if necessary.
Other Information
More information is on the way! You’ll get a guide to living on campus at the end of June, with details on our building, the move-in process, and more. If you have other questions, please contact our office:
