Editorial
Front Page - Friday, August 6, 2010
Artisan Construction designing one quality home at a time
David Laprad
Tony Griffy is the owner and president of Artisan Construction, a full service design and build company that specializes in new residential construction and renovation. His goal is to provide services for customers who can think “outside of the box.”
- David Laprad
Tony Griffy, owner and president of Artisan Construction, is a man on a mission. Unlike James Bond, he’s not out to save the world, but his task is still challenging: attract clients who are able to think creatively about the space in which they want to live, and then design and build homes for them using superior workmanship and quality materials.
Griffy’s job might be easier if he didn’t insist on beginning each project with a blank slate.
“We take each home back to step one and ask ourselves, ‘What’s the best way to approach this project? What will work for this property and this client?’ We don’t do cookie cutter work,” he says.
Each property has its own personality, Griffy says, and lends itself to a unique design.
“A big part of how a house should be built is related to the orientation of the property, whether it faces east, west, north, or south. Will we be able to take advantage of solar gain? Or is there too much shade? And then we have to design a living space around the answers,” he says.
Griffy brings a number of distinct design philosophies to the homes he builds. For example, once he has sat down with a client and learned what the person wants in a house, he’ll create a layout that includes the necessary rooms, but eliminates hallways. Griffy took this approach with his home, which contains none of the long passages, with adjacent rooms, that have been a staple in house design since the ‘70s.
“You shouldn’t feel like a mouse in a maze when you’re walking through your home,” Griffy says.
Clients should, however, feel like royalty, he says. Griffy prefers to use quality materials, from poured concrete foundations, to structurally insulated panels for walls and roofs, to Brazilian cherry and other choice woods for porches and decks.
“I saw in our area how the materials the builders were using had gone downhill, and decided to kick things back up to where they should be,” he says.
Griffy has 30 years of experience in the construction industry, not counting his childhood, when he made tiny homes out of Lincoln Logs, or when he was a little older, when he built tree houses, or his high school days, when he received vocational training.
“I’d always wanted to build things. There was no beam of light and voice that told me to build, I just felt like it was what I was supposed to do,” he says.
Upon graduating from high school in 1980, Griffy assembled a framing crew and went to work for a builder who was putting together “cheap spec houses.” He immediately questioned his career choice.
“The guy was cutting costs everywhere he could. Where I’d been trained to put studs 16 inches on center in the wall, he was putting them two feet on center in the wall, and he was using a product builders called black board. You could put your finger through it,” Griffy says.
Griffy also scoffed at the cut-rate windows and roofing tiles the builder was using.
Disillusioned, he joined forces with the group that was starting Habitat for Humanity in Chattanooga, and spent two years as the organization’s local intern construction coordinator. From there, Griffy went to Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprises, where he served as construction manager. He then went to work for Southeast Tennessee Human Resource Agency, which had received a two-year Tennessee Housing Development Grant to do rural rehabilitation.
Griffy says the housing programs for which he worked did a lot of good, but he eventually became interested in pursuing work he believed would be more cost effective and sustainable. Around that time, a friend who was opening an architecture firm offered Griffy a job as a project manager and draftsman. He accepted, and had a hand in developing Jack’s Alley, which runs between Panera and Sticky Fingers in downtown Chattanooga.
Following a brief stint with a civil engineering firm, Griffy went to work for Tune Design Architecture, where he became an associate. Five years later, he began feeling like it was time to strike out on his own.
“I’d always wondered why I couldn’t settle down anywhere, and looking back, I think it was because I’d always wanted to start my own company,” Griffy says.
Griffy took his experience in construction and the skills he’d acquired at the architectural firms, and spent a year designing and building his own home, which he called “The Funky Bungalow.” Then he and a friend, Jonathan Vickery, officially launched Artisan Construction.
To earn money while the housing market is slow, Griffy and Vickery apply the same principles they use when designing and building a home to renovations. They also design and install solar power systems and rainwater harvesting equipment.
“For our next job, we’re going to remove 2,000 feet of vinyl siding and put in fiber cement siding,” he says, smiling at the thought of getting rid of nearly a half mile of cheap material.
Griffy hopes to be able to continue to design and build homes that are unique and meet his high standards for quality. He realizes this means his name will never be on a sign at the entrance to an up-and-coming subdivision, and that’s OK with him.
“I want to leave my imprint on Chattanooga one project at a time. I’ve never wanted to do 50 or a hundred homes. I don’t want to ride around in my truck all day. I want to be involved with my customers; I want to be a part of the design process; I want my clients to feel like I’m providing a unique service,” Griffy says.
“I want to be able to think my way through every aspect of a new home, from the orientation of the property, to the budget, to the materials I use, to how the client is going to live in the space when it’s complete. I want each customer to feel like I’m giving him or her my total attention.”
To view photos of Griffy’s work and to obtain contact information for Artisan Construction, search for “Artisan Construction LLC” online.
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