The Surrey Lofts is a newly renovated, one-bedroom apartment in downtown Vancouver that offers the essence of postmodernism — it’s sleek, it’s modern, and it has some really clever designs. That said, I think you can get the same or even better for similar prices at other buildings in the area.

I was looking for a room to rent near my office because I thought this would be an excellent chance for me to discover Vancouver before making any long-term decisions about where to live permanently. The Surrey Lofts fit the bill, with plenty of interesting features and a location right on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. The building is right across the street from the Waterfront Skytrain station, which makes getting around in Vancouver very easy. It even has a second entrance to Granville Station, making life convenient if you’re coming home late at night and don’t want to walk through the middle of downtown.

The apartment itself is pretty swank. You can choose between two floor plans — a one-bedroom with a loft or a one-bedroom without. I went for the one-bedroom with a loft, which was $1,200 per month plus utilities — including cable TV and internet.

The loft design is pretty cool. There’s a bedroom with a queen-sized bed and ensuite bathroom, and the living and dining room area form an open loft over the bedroom, which has a skylight (no mean feat in Vancouver) to let light in. The walls are all concrete, which gives it that postmodern feel. The apartment is very light, but there is some noise from Granville Street coming up if you’re sitting in the living room — not a lot of noise by city standards, but you can hear people talking on the street or cars passing. It’s not so bad that it blocks out the sound of your television, though, and no noise from the bedroom.

The kitchen has nice appliances (although they were a little bit dirty) and granite countertops. There’s no dishwasher, but I think that’s okay because dishes don’t get as much use in a city like Vancouver. The bathroom was pretty standard, with better quality than what you would expect for an apartment this small.

The reason I can only give this place a rating for style and convenience is that the loft design really is the main reason to pick this place over other similar apartments in Vancouver. The amenities are pretty standard for lofts in Vancouver. You get free wifi, free parking and a ton of cable channels. The only thing you have to pay for is your phone or internet service, and you can get most of the other stuff easily in Vancouver because it’s such a tech-savvy city.

If you’re looking for a fun place to stay in downtown Vancouver, Surrey Lofts is as good as it gets. Just make sure that the loft design is important to you, because it really is that unique. If you want something more ordinary, there are plenty of older buildings with more reasonable prices elsewhere in the city that aren’t too far away from downtown.