After spending their first year mostly together in Younker and a second year all together on East campus, Jacob Reisberg ’10, Damian von Schoenborn ’10, Ben Zarov ’10, Kelsey Picken ’10, Carlos Lu ’10 and Nathan Levine ’10 have moved their close-knit group even closer into 1010 High Street, or, as its ore affectionately referred to, Binary House.
The pea-green colored house is comfortable inside—the bedrooms are large, and one even has chalkboards for walls. The attic is a decidedly creepy room of discarded furniture, including two beds covered with garbage, a cradle and a miniature armchair. The strong smell and low ceilings of the basement keep residents from spending too much time below. Outside seems to be where the housemates have put most of their energy—they roto-tilled their backyard and created a garden.
The farming is mostly the homegrown vegetable of Reisberg, who has earned the nickname Farmer Jac from his roommates. He seems to deserve it—a zucchini the size of Shaq’s forearm sits in the windowsill waiting to be eaten. Reisberg is happy to provide and cook for his friends, seeing them as a community. “All six of us have been close all four years, we are very family-like,” Reisberg said. “We have sit down dinners where we all eat together.”
The Binary boys—plus Picken—would like to extend this community past their walls to the entire campus. Sharing the sentiments of Shambalot residents, they want to return a feeling of welcoming they feel as been absent for some time now. “We feel it’s a duty of the seniors,” Lu said. “Especially on High Street which had that culture our freshman year to provide a cool place to always go—for anybody.”
So feel free to come visit Binary house, where you’re welcome to imbibe, hang out on the couch and play Halo or Super Smash Brothers—the N64 version, of course. Just please—leave the food for those who live there.
