Hello and welcome back to The Weekly LOdown - where every Friday we gather our favorite links from the architecture and building industry (our niche) and share them with you.

This week we have some green links (in honor of Greenbuild - taking place in Phoenix, AZ as we speak), some fun architecture links, and finally a status update on our own building project - the LarsonO’Brien conference room table.

Allison

Even if you’ve never been a fan of Barbie dolls, chances are you can still appreciate the design of the new Barbie store in China. The modern architecture of Barbie Shanghai features a glass facade to showcase pink LEDs and six stories of paraphernalia, clothing and merchandise. The store even has Barbie-inspired leisure activities. You can get pampered with a “Plastic Smooth” facial at the spa, then walk up the spiral staircase to order a “Barbitini” at the bar. If they turn the top two unoccupied floors into Barbie’s dream loft, I might have to relocate to LO’s China office.

Lauren

While bowling is by no means my thing, LEED Certified Brooklyn Bowl caught my eye this week. Dubbed a “hipster bowling alley and music venue” by TreeHugger, the facility’s sustainable attributes range from preserved original flooring and walls to locally salvaged glass panels. String pinsetters save 75% more energy than traditional machines. From the edgy decor and hip atmosphere to the range of energy saving benefits, a visit to the century-old building would be a pretty cool experience, even for a non-bowler like me.

Nick

How well do you know green labels? In our industry, it’s important to keep track – and it’s not always easy. I appreciated this quiz, which was built by Planet Green – a website I frequent.

Jack

Our last big move-in project nears completion. The LO conference room table was custom built to our specs. The carpenter had a long-dead standing maple he believed to be dry, But after six months, cracks as wide as a pencil appeared in the table top. The fix we chose was to remove the end caps to allow the boards to be glued and clamped. When the lumber dried, dimensions changed, so we sawed the end caps out, guessing at the amount we’d have to remove to accommodate the new narrower table. Then we re-glued, clamped, added pocket screws and epoxy-filled any gaps. That’s where we are today. We’ll paint the white filler with artist acrylics to match the wood grain. This afternoon we’re rough sanding the entire top because drying also created a few high spots where boards were joined. Here are a couple pics of the work-in-progress:

Any thoughts or opinions? Any links that you found particularly interesting this week? Post them below in the comments section.

Thanks for reading!