June 2023

What We're Celebrating

Three cheers for some stellar achievements!

Top Left: Richie, new licensed architect | Top Center: Sarah Jacobson and FLOTUS | Top Right: Keiko Declerck passed her Professional Engineering ExamBottom, Left to Right: Laura Stock, Lucy Goldman, and Rachel Macri, all passed their NCIDQ exams

Big congratulations to the one and only Richie Hands for passing the ARE exams and officially becoming a LICENSED ARCHITECT!

LJC president Sarah Jacobson attended a fundraiser sponsored by the Women's Leadership Forum to kick-off the Biden Victory Fund. Women's Leadership Forum focuses on recuriting and engaging women in Democratic politics. FLOTUS herself, Jill Biden, spoke at the event, sharing her insights on the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration.

A big round of applause for Keiko Declerck with CDE who passed her Professional Engineering Exam! Congratulations on this incredible achievement!

An enormous congratulations to a trifecta of incredible LJC team members: Laura Stock, Lucy Goldman, and Rachel Macri all passed their NCIDQ exams! We are so proud of all your hard work and a huge round of applause from all of us on achieving this major milestone!

Max Komnenich was interviewed for an episode of The Skyline Forum!

Go watch the chat where Max shows off his smarts, talking all about using AI in architecture.

Logan Christensen was named a 2023 Profiles in Design honoree!

Check out Logan's full profile here and watch the video below. Congrats, Logan!

What We're Up To

Take a look at what we've been getting up to this past month!

Call Robert Redford because LJC is fielding a team of Naturals!

We design hard, but we crush softball even harder, one might say.

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Photos and video by Shelby Kroeger

We are proud to be a part of the Clayco enterprise and participate in the Clayco Juneteenth Fund Celebration!

We celebrated Juneteenth with CRG and Clayco!

LJC, CRG, and Clyaco sponsored a virtual conversation between the United Way of Metro Chicago and Dr. Ngozi Ogbunamiri Ezike on health equity.

Dr. Ezike is the first Black woman president and CEO of Sinai Chicago hospital system and immediate past director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. During her time at IDPH, Dr. Ezike valiantly navigated the State through the most difficult waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the morning of June 19, our team gathered to join over 900 virtual attendees to engage in this important conversation and bring awareness of these issues to our Chicago community.

LJC showed our PRIDE!

Our Research Design Core Council and non-profit organization Defining Humanity hosted a discussion on 3D printed building construction in Madagascar.

Big thanks to the Core Council for helping make this event happen and to LJC's Yash Mehta for presenting!

We attended the John Buck Spring Fling!

A night of fun was had by LJC's My-Nga Lam, Lauren McPhillips, Patricia Rotondo, Lesley Roth, Eli Lechter, Imani Dixon, Lamar Johnson, Oren Schumaker, Al Fiesel, and Rob Jernigan.

We welcomed our summer interns!

AKA LJC rookie class of 2023!

... AND we hosted Intern Gallery Nights at KC, Overland, and Chicago!

PHX and LA coming up soon!

The Phoenix team donated nearly 7,000 bottles of water to the NAIOP 2023 water drive!

LJC and Clayco gathered donations from across all our offices to donate 6,960 bottles of water! The donations go to the Rio Vista Center to help bring the community bottled water as summer's rising temperatures approach. Amazing work, team!

We attended the Hospitality Design CitySCENE networking event!

Thanks to My-Nga Lam, Patricia Rotondo, Jessica Statz, Jana Elion, Laila Miada, and Louis Vavaroutsos for representing LJC!

We attended the SIUE Construction Golf Outing!

Great swings were made by Lance McOlgan, Amy Luchun, Laura Stock, and Scott Voss.

Aloha Friday has taken over the LA office!

The KC office survived a week of temporary work setups and made it to their new office!

We supported CRG's Thomas Shanabruch at Connect Conference's talk on Making the Numbers Work about multifamily and adaptive reuse trends!

Thanks to Alan Barker and Patricia Rotondo for attending the conference and supporting our enterprise teammate!

Our team attended Habitat for Humanity LA's Power Women Power Tools Build Day!

Shout out to Mary Welch for representing at the event!

Our Chicago team took to the streets and burned some rubber in the Chicagoland Bike Commuter Challenge!

LJC Chicago had 14 riders who together commuted over 1,900 miles across 151 communities, earning us a ranking of 36 out of 209 organizations and the even higher honor of 7th out of 34 firms with 100-500 employees!

The LJC crew had so much fun they decided to form a bike bus by meeting at a local coffee shop and commuting to the office together!

LJC Crew includes: Alan Barker, Chris Kupcho, Clayton Witt, Colin Kerr, Eduardo Sanchez, Jim Jobes, Josh Whitener, Max Komnenich, Michael Berger, Nicholas Moen, Paul Bryant, Ryan Faulkner, Victor Jimenez, and Linda Serena

Who We Are

A monthly Q&A to help you get to know what some of your LJC colleagues are up to outside the office!

Top Left: Nic taking ma break from crossword puzzles | Top Right: Cristina and pals on a casual afternoon at Mt. Fuji | Bottom Left: Jianxin having a perfect day on the beach | Bottom Right: Lucy at the loom!

Get to know Nic Smith!

LJC Office Location: Overland
Title/Role: Associate
Focus: Planning & Urban Design/Architecture
Alma Mater: Mizzou (Undergrad) / Wash U (Grad)
Professional Affiliations and/or Organizations you’re involved in: NOMA, AIA

What is something about you that you think would surprise your coworkers?
I do an hour or so of crossword puzzles a night... it's a lot of puzzles.

What's the most fun you've had on a trip or vacation?
Barcelona. The food, culture, architecture, people, and atmosphere were top notch in my book of all the places I've traveled so far.

What is your most niche, non-work-related interest?
I LOVE to design kitchens and bathrooms in some of my "spare" time.

What does a perfect weekend look like to you?
Camping. Some may say "glamping," with good food, a hot tub, and view.

What non-AEC related subject are you an expert on?
Cars. I can name any and every car on sight and its specs (for the most part... like 98%)

Learn more about Cristina Marubayashi!

LJC Office Location: Chicago
Title/Role: Senior Associate
Focus: Architecture
Alma Mater: Universidade Estadual de Maringa (Brasil)
Professional Affiliations and/or Organizations you’re involved in: CAU (Brasil)

What's the most fun you've had on a trip or vacation?
During my trip to Greece, we hopped off on the wrong island and that was the last boat of the night. After that shocking moment (having to arrange a hotel and get tickets to get us back to the right island) we ended up having dinner in the middle of a Greek wedding reception! The funniest part was being invited to join the dance.

What's your most niche, non-work-related interest?
I love to watch and attend sports events, especially soccer. I'm a big fan of the Brazilian team from Sao Paulo!

What are you most proud of accomplishing in your life, professionally, so far?
Being a Brazilian architect and working on international projects. It's totally out of my comfort zone, from units (metric to imperial) to building codes.

Say "hello" to Jianxin Li!

LJC Office Location: LA
Title/Role: Associate / Architectural Designer
Focus: Architecture and Interiors
Alma Mater: Shanghai University

If you could speak another language what would it be?
Chinese, my native language

What's the most fun you've had on a trip or vacation?
Visiting my parents in China after four years of not going back because of the pandemic.

What's the last TV show you binged and enjoyed?
The Boys

What does a perfect weekend look like to you?
Lying on the beach all day

Learn about Lucy Goldman!

LJC Office Location: Overland
Title/Role: Associate
Focus: Interiors
Alma Mater: University of Arkansas
Professional Affiliations and/or Organizations you’re involved in: IDIA

What is your most niche, non-work related interest?
Weaving and textile design. I own a few looms, both small-scale and lap looms, and a very large loom originally built in the 1960s. I enjoy making smaller wall decorations! I have yet to complete a full-size rug, but I have made a smaller table runner.

What is the last TV show you binged and enjoyed?
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has been my comfort show for a while. The writers did such an amazing job with this final season. What's not to love about it?! The fashion and set design on top of the witty commentary is chef's kiss

What does a perfect weekend look like to you?
Sleeping in, lots of coffee and relaxing, and most likely a craft.

What We're Working On

Check out some of the latest and greatest milestones from this past month!

We celebrated the topping out of PALMtower in Phoenix!

A great example of our integrated approach with Clayco! PALMtower will be a 352-unit residential complex with modern amenities, including a pool, spa, outdoor gym, and dog park, complete with 360-degree views of the city's mountain horizon and urban skyline. Congratulations, team!

Our Phoenix team moved into their new offices!

The Clayco enterprise's expansion in the Phoenix region required new office space and LJC rose to the challenge!

Bottom Right: PHX team in the Camelback Lounge for a weekly all-studio huddle!

We celebrated breaking ground on the University of Missouri - St. Louis Richter Family Welcome and Alumni Center!

Our design brings enrollment efforts, alumni engagement, and annual giving together into the same building. The architecture promotes connectivity between the different programs and is positioned to be in dialogue with the other buildings on campus. The new building will also be the first stop on the new student recruitment tour.

Congratulations, team!