New TCA chair hopes to build bridges to better connect allied trades and stakeholders

As the new chair of the Toronto Construction Association (TCA), architect Ed Applebaum says he hopes to bring different groups together.

“With my contacts in the industry and liaisons, I’m hoping to be able to build bridges between different groups and different associations,” Applebaum told the Daily Commercial News at the TCA’s 156^th annual general meeting and Best of the Best Awards. “That’s what I am hoping to achieve.”

Applebaum, who is also partner emeritus at Montgomery Sisam Architects, is taking over the role from 2023 chair Jeff Murva.

He has been with the TCA for about 15 years. He was the chair of the allied professions committee and served on the board for about eight years.

“The allied professions committee is an interesting group of people,” he explained. “It’s all the lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, all the people that are affiliated with construction and aren’t actually contractors themselves. We’ve been an advisory group to the overall construction association.”

He pointed out construction and the allied trades have been working more collaboratively in the industry in the past few years.

“This is my opportunity as chair to kind of come in and I’m hoping to bring some of my perspective to the association and look towards greater integration of the allied professions with the actual providers of construction: the contractors, the subtrades etc. and look to see how we can work better together,” he says. “I think that’s really important. In our architectural practice we’ve seen more and more integration over the past 15, 20 years. I think that’s probably only going to continue to increase. There are great opportunities in that area.”

Applebaum was with Montgomery Sisam Architects for about 35 years and just recently retired.

“We’re a practice of about 120 people centered in Toronto,” he says. “Our work is largely in the institutional sector so we do health care, long-term care design, academic buildings, colleges, universities, justice buildings as well as work in residential, primarily in the residential not-for-profit housing sectors.”

He says he is hoping to bring some positive change to the association.

“At the beginning, my goal is really to dive in and get a better understanding of the different committees and who the major representatives are, what they are looking for, what changes they would like to see happen,” he says. “I want to really better get to know the lay of the land and listen to people and then see what I can do in that regard.”