Happy Friday everyone! It’s time for another installment of The Weekly LOdown - where we gather our favorite links from the architecture and building industry and share them with you at the end of each week.

This week brings content that’s a a bit more fanciful and design-oriented than usual. Here’s what we’ve been clicking:

Jack

I really enjoyed looking at these imaginative and good looking designs. Interesting site.

Allison

My pick for this week’s link comes from the increasingly-popular realm of social media. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the once student-based networking site has reached a newsworthy number of users - 350 million to be exact. That means in a mere five and a half years, Facebook went from roughly 1200 users at Harvard to 350 million people worldwide. The building products industry is one niche that has found its place among the millions, with Facebook profiles available for architects, manufacturers, building publications and green blogs. Check out LO’s Facebook page to see how we’re making social networking work for us.

Lauren

Maybe it’s because I’ve written about architecture for the past three years, but for whatever reason, it takes a lot for a building to impress me. Chicago’s AQUA Tower is a definite exception, at least from an aesthetic standpoint. Jetson Green featured the stunning structure this week, showcasing the curved balconies that lend a flowing, ethereal quality to the building. While the AQUA tower will pursue LEED certification at only the basic certified level, Jetson Green notes that at 2 million square feet the facility will still function as one of the largest green buildings anywhere, even at the lowest rung on the LEED ladder.

Nick

Susan Szenasy, Editor-in-Chief of Metropolis magazine, takes a thoughtful look at urban spaces and their lack of accessibility for those with disabilities. A quick tour around New York City shows that we have a lot of work to do to make urban living an option for everyone. The key message I took away from this post: Sustainability is about people - much more than it is about streets, cars, buildings or anything else for that matter.

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

Thanks for reading!