April 2023

Name: Hillary Bocash
LJC Office Location: Phoenix!
Title/Role: Architect
School you graduated from: Tulane University

If you could speak another language, what would it be?
I would love to learn ASL.

What's the most fun you've had on a trip or vacation?
My husband and I have taken a lot of great vacations but we did a bike tour through the Scottish Highlands for our honeymoon which was amazing! We stayed in castles, biked past highland cows in the countryside, and ate some amazing food.

What was your first job, and what was most memorable about it?
When I was in high school I worked at a Chinese food restaurant doing the take out counter. One day the waitress didn’t show up for the dinner shift and I had to take over running the tables (my first time waiting tables) and the take out counter. Someone even tried to dine and dash that night and I had to chase them out the restaurant and make them pay for their meal.

Name: Lance McOlgan
LJC Office Location: Overland
Title/Role: Principal / Market Leader Corporate Commercial
Focus: Architecture
Professional Affiliations / Organizations: International Living Futures Institute, ULI, NCARB, Keep Climbing Foundation, City of Edwardsville Planning & Zoning Commission
School you graduated from: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

What is something about you that you think would surprise your co-workers?
I grew up in a very rural area in northern Illinois. My exposure to design and architecture was very limited to my local surroundings and 1 field trip to Chicago in junior high. My home growing up was surrounded by corn field and apple orchards. Our friend nearby had a large chicken farm and I was able to ride my bike there and buy a dozen eggs direct from the chicken barn.

What is your most niche, non-work-related interest?
Climbing and Mountaineering; my brother-in-law started the Keep Climbing Foundation for raising money to support child illness. It pushed me to try something new and expand beyond my comfort zone. I love the outdoors, hiking, and traveling so it was a natural move to push further into this activity. Since 2018 we have raised over $100,000 through climbs including Grand Teton, Denali glacier, Mt. Massive, and Chimborazo (Ecuador).

What are you most proud of accomplishing in your life, not professionally, so far?
Married with 3 daughters, 2 will be in college this fall.

Name: Chris Sanders
LJC Office Location: Kansas City
Title/Role: Senior Associate
Focus: Landscape Architecture
Professional Affiliations / Organizations: American Society of Landscape Architects
School you graduated from: Kansas State University

What's your most niche, non-work related interest?
This would have to be blacksmithing. I’ve always enjoyed creating things and solving problems. Blacksmithing really blends art and science in a way that I find exciting and enjoyable. I’m blessed to be able to share this passion with others through my small shop and the projects I create.

What's a book you'd recommend to just about anyone?
The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter

What does a perfect weekend look like to you?
The perfect weekend would be spent hiking and camping with my wife Kaitlyn and our 2 year old Josie. We all really enjoy getting away and spending time in wild places. Its so much fun to teach Josie about nature and watch her grow. A bit of fly fishing would be a cherry on top.

As a kid, what did you want to be grew up?
Paleontologist. Dinosaurs are just plain cool.

Name: Anežka Gočová
LJC Office Location: Chicago
Title/Role: Senior Associate
Focus: Landscape Architecture, Planning & Urban Design
Professional Affiliations / Organizations: ASLA, CCAC, SOAR
School you graduated from: The University of British Columbia, University of Waterloo, L'Institut d'Urbanisme de Paris

What’s the most fun you’ve had on a trip or vacation?
This year I took a seaplane to Dry Tortugas National Park. The pilot had an empty seat beside him and somehow I got lucky and ended up being able to sit in the cockpit on the flight there. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. The park/fort was cool too, I guess.

What’s your most niche, non-work-related interest?
During the pandemic I decided I was going to make a custom chess set; the pieces were going to be inspired by creepy fairy tales. I am nowhere near done, but I do have a bunch of casts of weird figures I molded all over my house. Please send help.

What was your first job, and what is most memorable about it?
My first job was at a farmer’s market when I was 12. It was a year after we moved to Canada and I was still learning English. I actually didn’t know all the names of the vegetables in English so there was a lot of pointing involved. I actually had a lot of jobs growing up, another “fun” one was writing manuals for assembly line machines when I was in highschool. I am haunted by the thought that somewhere out there is a tech trying to fix a IV bag machine based on my “instructions”.

Name: Jade Li
LJC Office Location: Los Angeles
Title/Role: Senior Interior Designer
Focus: Interiors
Professional Affiliations / Organizations: IIDA, CREWLA, AWA+D
School you graduated from: University of Missouri

If you could speak another language, what would it be?
I would love the ability to speak Quenya and Sindarin, more commonly known as Elvish. Partially because it is a recently constructed language, and partial because of its linguistic roots based in Finnish and Welsh.

If you could travel to any time period/place, what would it be?
For me, it would be the Midnight in Paris version of the 1920s. For a night spent with the Jazz Age’s icons of art, literature, music. To brush shoulders with the likes of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and to gleam their inspiration directly instead of reading a interpreted version by a third person.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As a kid, I wanted to be a starfleet officer. It was the perfect marriage between my obsession of astronomy and archeology, and who can resist the urge “to boldly go where no man has gone before!”

What’s your most niche, non-work-related interest?
Argentine Tango, I start taking classes on and off for a couple years. Planning to reel in that passion and focus on some semester-based classes starting in July.