Location: Wallach

Bwog took a trip to the LLC on the rumor that a simple single had been converted into a castle. And indeed, the rumors were true. As always, if you find a room that you think should be hopped, send it to tips@bwog.com

Rienzi Gokea has a creative soul, but he decided to take the path of an engineer rather than an artist. But he still finds the time to channel some of his time into creating a living space that is actually livable. In between the problem sets and fencing practice, he transformed the drabness of Furnald and Wallach into a gamer’s paradise and a literal castle (respectively). As he stated during a tour of his current 8th floor Wallach single, “I like to feel that I’m an interesting person. I want my room to mirror that.”

The time he has invested in building room-specific furniture isn’t wasted, seeing as he has chosen to live in the exact same room during his junior year as well. And seeing as it’s only about 115 square feet, he really needed to find a way to utilize the space as best as possible so that he could fit even a portion of his extensive video game collection not to mention a second monitor for his computer and a television. Last year he opted to tile the walls with the games, but this year he settled for building several wooden shelves and even a table that lifts up against the wall when not in use.

He also intends to “commercialize the key pad unlocking mechanism” that he originally designed for his Furnald room last year. He does not have it up this year as he has gotten in trouble with residence staff for trying to set up a mechanism to close his floor lounge’s door remotely from his own room and didn’t want to rock the boat too much too soon.

As for decorations, he was inspired by a legend of Zelda stained glass he found on Etsy. He promptly bought a print version of the design (the actual glass retails for several thousand dollars each) and decided to build a castle design from his own imagination. The other three “windows” above his bed are his “knights in shining power armor:” Master Chief, Samus, and of course Iron Man. Rienzi adds, “I take a lot of inspiration from Iron Man, which is why I’m doing engineering.”