Coliving · Upper West Side
Upper West Side Coliving on W 85th Street & Amsterdam Avenue
Two prewar buildings on a residential block of West 85th Street, half a step in from Amsterdam Avenue, run as one small coliving operation. Furnished rooms from $420 a week, billed every four weeks, all-inclusive. Two blocks from Central Park; three minutes’ walk to the 1 train at 86th Street.
Who this page serves
Built for short-to-medium NYC stays.
Upper West Side coliving exists for a specific kind of move to NYC: a stay between four weeks and a year, where the alternative is a broker fee, a guarantor letter, two months in a sublet, and a furniture run before the work even starts.
We host three groups, in roughly that order:
- Summer interns at Manhattan firms — banks, consulting, media, research labs — usually employer-sponsored or self-paying for a 10-12 week program.
- Graduate students at Columbia, NYU, Juilliard, Cooper Union, and the Manhattan School of Music, who want to live close to their school without committing to a 12-month lease in their first semester.
- Early-career professionals relocating to New York for four to twelve months, who want to settle quickly and decide where they actually want to live later.
The shared problem is the same: live in NYC quickly, simply, and at one transparent price.
Why Amsterdam Place — Upper West Side
A leafy, walkable corner of Manhattan.
The Upper West Side is the part of Manhattan that has stayed residential. Limestone and brownstone fronts, low-traffic side streets, canopies of old trees on the avenues. It is leafy, walkable, and quieter than Midtown — but the 1, 2, and 3 trains will put you in Times Square in under fifteen minutes and the Financial District in well under an hour.
The building stock around West 85th Street dates almost entirely to the prewar years, with the bay windows, cornice lines, and millwork that define that era of New York construction. Lincoln Center, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Met sit within a thirty-block stretch. Central Park and Riverside Park bookend the neighborhood east and west.
UWS coliving sits in a specific gap. It is not corporate housing, where ninety days commonly runs $6,000 to $10,000 a month. It is not a sublet, which usually means a broker fee, a guarantor, a security deposit, a furniture run, and a utility setup. It is not a hostel — that is not a stay you would book for months. We borrow from hotels more than from landlords: the buildings are managed, not let; the rooms are furnished; the WiFi is on when you arrive; the cleaning happens on schedule.
The Building
205 & 207 West 85th Street.
Amsterdam Place is two adjacent prewar buildings on West 85th Street, half a block in from Amsterdam Avenue: 205 and 207. Both date to 1910. Together they hold roughly twenty-four rooms, run as one small coliving operation rather than a chain. You can read the buildings in detail on the residences page.
The architecture is what you would expect from the period. Limestone detailing on the lower facade. Tall bay windows on the front rooms, framing the street-side light. Original cornice lines along the rooflines — the sort of work that is more often restored than replaced. The interiors keep the prewar proportions: higher ceilings than newer construction, thicker walls between rooms, hardwood floors underfoot.
Inside, the buildings work like buildings should in 2026, quietly. Gigabit fiber WiFi reaches every room. Common areas are cleaned weekly; rooms are turned on the same schedule. Entry is keyed and accessible 24 hours. There is on-site laundry, indoor bike storage, and mail handled at the door. Two buildings is, deliberately, a small portfolio — the same hospitality team works across both addresses, and the response time stays short for that reason.
The Neighborhood
UWS at a glance.
The walking and transit map from West 85th & Amsterdam is short and dense:
- Central Park, the West 86th Street entrance: two blocks east.
- 1 train at the 86th Street station: three minutes on foot.
- Juilliard and Lincoln Center: about eight minutes’ walk south.
- Columbia University: about fifteen minutes door to door — three blocks to the 1 train, nine stops north to 116th Street.
- Cooper Union, in the East Village: about thirty minutes via the 1 train and a transfer.
- Times Square, Midtown: twenty-five to thirty minutes by 1 train.
- Wall Street, the Financial District: about forty-five minutes by 1, end to end.
Day to day, the block is a normal residential street. The corner of 85th and Amsterdam has a bagel counter, a wine shop, a dry cleaner, and a couple of cafes within fifty feet. The American Museum of Natural History sits four blocks north. The Met and the Guggenheim are two and three subway stops south. Riverside Park runs the Hudson three blocks west. Weekends are Central Park, brunch on Columbus or Amsterdam, an afternoon at one of the museums. The neighborhood does not get loud at night. There is more on the Upper West Side neighborhood on the dedicated page, and a longer-form Upper West Side neighborhood guide on the journal.
Pricing & what’s included
Three room types, one transparent price.
Three room types, three weekly rates:
- Private room, shared bath: $420 a week.
- Deluxe room, shared bath: $470 a week.
- Studio with ensuite bathroom: $620 a week.
Stays are billed every four weeks. The weekly figure is the figure: no separate utility bill, no WiFi surcharge, no cleaning fee, no amenity fee. Heat, hot water, electricity, gigabit WiFi, weekly common-space cleaning, the roof deck, the coworking lounge, on-site laundry access, bike storage, and community events are all part of it. You can see all room tiers for floor plans and current availability.
There is no broker fee. The standard NYC apartment broker fee — twelve to fifteen percent of the annual rent, paid up front — does not exist here, because there is no broker. There is no US guarantor requirement and no US credit history requirement. Proof of program, internship offer letter, employer letter, or graduate-school admission is typically enough.
The minimum stay is four weeks, in line with the New York City law prohibiting rentals under thirty days. Four weeks is the floor, not the ceiling — the more common stays sit between eight and forty-eight weeks. For shorter stays specifically, see our writeup on furnished short-stay rentals with no broker fee.
How coliving works at Amsterdam Place
Managed, not let.
The simplest way to describe the model is by what it is not.
Coliving here is not a landlord arrangement. No annual lease, no security deposit equal to a month’s rent, no chasing utility companies, no buying a bed frame on your second day in the city. The buildings are managed end to end by the same hospitality operator. When something needs fixing, the team that handles the front desk and the cleaning schedule sends someone to fix it.
It is also not a forced community. Programming you can join, never programming you have to. There is a residents’ Slack, a recurring weekly dinner, occasional rooftop nights through the summer, and a calendar of small things for residents who want them. People who would rather close the door, work late, and come back to a clean room are also doing exactly the right thing.
The common spaces support both modes — the roof deck looks east toward Central Park; the coworking lounge has bookable focus seats for days when the room is too quiet (see the amenities and common spaces for the full list). The resident mix shifts with the calendar: interns May through August, grad students through the academic year, professionals year-round. More about the summer cohort on our intern-friendly housing on the Upper West Side page; more about the academic-year cohort on our grad student housing on the Upper West Side page.
A typical floor mixes a Columbia grad finishing thesis revisions, a summer intern at one of the Midtown banks pulling fourteen-hour days, and an architect on a year-long project with a New York firm. They share a kitchen, occasionally swap notes about the 1 train, and otherwise leave each other to their own rhythms. The cohort shifts every few months without the building ever feeling unsettled — which is, deliberately, the point.
How to book
Four ways to start.
Four ways to start, depending on how committed you are:
- Reserve a room with no payment up front — the lightest option. Name dates and room tier; we hold it for a short window while you confirm program details.
- Book a tour — in person or virtual. We respond within one business day; the form takes about a minute.
- Book your stay — the direct route. Pay the service fee, secure the room, receive arrival instructions. Most summer-intern bookings take this route from May onward.
- Apply to live here — for longer stays where we want to talk before confirming. No US guarantor required; the application is read by the team, not by an automated screen.
If you are still weighing whether the address is right, the why the Upper West Side writeup is the longer answer.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
The Upper West Side stays residential where most of Manhattan turned commercial. The blocks west of Amsterdam are largely prewar low-rises, lined with trees, with Central Park two blocks east and Riverside Park three blocks west. It is quieter than Midtown and less party-driven than Williamsburg. Lincoln Center, the American Museum of Natural History, the Met, and Columbia all sit within a fifteen-minute radius.
Find your place on the Upper West Side.
Reserve a room without payment, apply for your dates, or schedule a tour — we reply within one business day.