BUILDING A DREAM

BY MELANIE CHANDLER JACKSON’74 PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELIZAVETA KOZLOVA’15

ike most kids with a Lego set, Prity RUNGTA’95 built houses. But Prity wasn’t most kids. She took her Lego houses apart and rebuilt them until she got every tiny detail perfect.

Fast-forward to Prity’s graduation from the University of Toronto with a degree in civil engineering. She immediately landed her fi rst job interview, to be a soils engineer. A job offer followed.

However, something happened in the meantime. “I had gone on another interview with a homebuilder,” she recalls. “In the interview room, they had a rendering of the front elevation of a house, the project they were hiring for. When I saw that picture, I felt like I’d been struck by lightning. I thought to myself: I am meant to build.”

That second job offer, to work on a house in Toronto’s Bridle Path area, Prity accepted. Fast-forward again, and today Prity is an owner’s representative in New York City, advising high-end clients on buying properties and supervising every detail of their renovation projects.

However, as with the Lego houses she once built, Prity’s career took a while to feel just right. For a long time, she had to endure almost unbearable sexism. That she nonetheless persevered with her career is a blueprint for inspiring other women.

In that fi rst job, her boss, a fellow U of T civil engineer, “was great. Better than great,” she says. “Unfortunately, I was surrounded by many other men, even co-workers, who were not. The sexual harassment started my fi rst day and continued on a regular basis. A lot of men said I didn’t belong on a job site, that I would never make it.

“About a year into that first job, I saw the tradespeople interacting with one of my male counterparts. They immediately started teaching him how they did things—whereas with me, they had only ever discussed their kids, wives and the weather. I had wasted a year of opportunity to learn because I’d been unaware of the difference in treatment I was receiving.”

Prity did what women so often do: outwardly stayed positive and polite, inwardly fumed. Sometimes she would push back with pointed comments. Two years later, she was ready to move on and move up. Hearing of an opening with a prominent builder based in Rosedale—familiar territory for her—Prity applied. The employer indicated that her skills and experience were an exact match for the position. Things looked promising.

“When I got to the interview, however, I was asked how many words a minute I could type. I was told that they would never put me on a job site; that at most I could do filing and administrative work in the office.”

A disheartening turn, to say the least. But not one that put Prity off following her lightning-bright dream. She was more determined than ever—and part of that determination came from thinking about other young women with similar dreams. “If I could keep going, it would be that much more encouragement for them.”

Prity secured a supervisory job; then, a year later, a role as project manager. The global-hospitality firm Soho House hired her to finish its Toronto location and oversee construction projects around North America. Persevering hadn’t been easy, but it was paying off.

It was through the Soho House job that Prity got to know and love New York City, especially the old sections. She moved, coincidentally, to the city’s Soho ’hood. “There’s a sense of community here. I know all my neighbours. Some have lived in their apartments for 50 years.”

Soho is known for great restaurants, not to mention Prity’s favourite café, Three of Cups. As well, with a park every 10 blocks, New York “is conducive to walking. You can walk a mile there and it doesn’t feel as long as when you walk a mile in Toronto.”

The city was also conducive to an idea. For 15 years, Prity had worked in general contracting and design and build projects. By now she’d developed the skills to supervise every detail of a building and its design. Why not use these skills to look out for clients’ interests during their projects?

On friends’ advice, Prity got her real estate licence. It’s one more proficiency that complements the building of a client’s dream home— advising them on the purchase and the future renovation.

The stress element will never go away, she says. It’s part of the work —and, paradoxically, of the satisfaction. However, Prity is hopeful that the sexism is ticking down: aft er 22 years, she’s seeing more women in the building industry.

Remembering how she toughed it out, she reflects: “I have always felt that Branksome gave me the confidence to know that I could do anything I set out to do. It wasn’t just something in the air; it was something that teachers explicitly said to us on a regular basis.”

There’s an old expression,“If the walls could talk.” In Prity’s case, they just might. Back in 2005–07, she built a grand mansion in Aurora, north of Toronto, which was “very beautiful, with hand-carved gargoyles, custom plaster ceilings, an ice cream parlour and a virtual golf simulator room,” she says. “We also built a horse barn and an indoor ice hockey rink in separate structures around the property. More importantly, for me, it was a chance to prove all the naysayers wrong: that a woman could build. Although the project was a tough one to get through, it was doubly worth it in the end.”

Now, in a delightful construct of fate, that house has become St. Anne’s School for girls. Head of School Sabrina D’Angelo has invited Prity to speak at an upcoming leadership conference.

Says Prity: “Knowing that young women will hopefully be taught the same confidence and skills to go out into the world as I had, inside a building that was initially built by me, is by far the most fulfi lling outcome I could have hoped for.” R