I was assigned to live at loeb hall for my freshman year of school at Eugenge Lang College, and had a pretty good experience with the place. Loeb is the only dorm that houses only students; the other dorms have other tenants living in the building, which was why it was appealing to my parents.
The building houses 260 students, from all undergraduate divisions of the New School, Eugene Lang, Parsons and Mannes. It is located in the East Village of Manhattan on the intersection of 12th st. and 3rd aveneue, which is a great location and my favorite neighborhood in New York. It is located approximately 5 blocks from school (depending on the building that you are going to), and is in the middle of many restaurants, shops and other attractions.
Loeb is set up in suites of 4 people, with an RA occupying every other floor. It is set up in apartment style living, each suite has two double bedrooms, a kitchen and bathroom. In the "A" suite of every floor, there are also a limited amount of singles available. These suites are also handicap suites, with bathtubs and enough space for wheelchair access. Since the building is owned by the university, there are also other resources inside, such as the art studio, video room, reading room, laundry facilities and health services. Those are all a plus.
While it is nice to have a kitchen facility, the space at this building is pretty small. The kitchen doesn't have windows and is better named a "common area", which is pretty small considering that 4 people have to share it. The bedrooms are not roomy, but there is definitely enough space for two people to live semi-comfortably (these are college dorms and I wasn't expecting to live in the lap of luxury) and they are larger than many other dorms that i've seen.
Loeb was built in 1989, so it is a new building with new appliances in the kitchen (refrigerators and stoves...) and relatively low in the pest department, compared to other dorms, though lots of people that i know were visited by mice in their stay there. The maintenence staff in the building are very helpful and very quick in doing repairs, which is nice, and the freedom to work on projects and do laundry at all hours of the day is so convenient.
The social aspect of Loeb is kind of interesting. It is mostly a freshman dorm and also the only "dry" dorm (no alcohol allowed, regardless of age). While the alcohol policy is enforced, drinking still happens all the time, one just has to be careful about keeping doors shut and keeping quiet.
Because there are so many people living there, it can often be a very loud place and it is sometimes hard to have a space to yourself, however, because the New School does not have a campus, the dorms are where the social scene happens, and I met most of my friends because we lived in the dorm together. It can be kind of rough to have people around all of the time, but it also helps the kind-of-shy people like myself to make friends.
All in all, I think that my experience at Loeb was good, though I am partial to Union Square, the dorm that I live in now (see my review on that, for more information). I am mostly glad that i decided to live in Loeb because of the friends that I made there, and think that everyone who comes to the New School should live there for at least a semester.




Recommended: Yes