Sun, Jul 05, 2009
 University of Arizona grads Jason Gallo and Andy Powell built this ecologically minded, 750-square-foot guesthouse in the back yard of Powell's parents' home in the Sam Hughes area.
photos by ron medvescek / Arizona Daily Star
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Special to the Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.30.2006
The idea began for Andy Powell in architecture school, while he plowed his way through a degree at the University of Arizona.
He wanted to build something himself, and not just anything.
He wanted to apply the design skills he was learning in school and his interest in sustainable, environmentally friendly materials and construction. He wanted it to be affordable and simple enough that he could do most of the work without the aid of contractors. And he wanted to kick out against what he calls passing styles and "historical mimicry," and provide something timeless yet very present.
There was also the matter of his thesis, which was looming — he needed a project to fill his fifth and final year. He knew his parents, longtime Midtown Tucson residents, wanted a guesthouse in their back yard.
So he decided to kill multiple birds with one stone.
The guesthouse would occupy 750 square feet of the back yard of a traditional 1920s Sam Hughes-area house, on space Powell had played on as a kid. The family affectionately called the yard "the back 40," that common phrase referring to a large, remote, often barren stretch of land.
His parents were willing to not only put up the construction money but also pay him a modest wage.
"I figured out a way to sell them on it — or con them," Powell, 29, says with a laugh.
His partner in crime was best buddy Jason Gallo, 31; the two met on their first day of architecture school.
They broke ground in May 2004, five months after Powell's graduation and at the end of Gallo's finals, and, in Powell's words, "naive and not knowing hardly anything about construction."
The project, which became known as the Back 40 House, would take up the next two years of their lives, demanding up to 15-hour days and a lot of sweat. They were determined to do whatever they could on their own, from forming the rammed-earth walls to fashioning the Baltic birch cabinetry for the kitchen area.
One day last summer, Gallo says, they were working some woodcutting equipment so hard that they had to wait for the machinery to cool down and had to start working again in the middle of the night.
They hired contractors for the ground digging, to pour the concrete floors and to start the rammed-earth construction. They made friends with many of them, calling them back for extra work they couldn't really afford, paying some of them with six-packs of beer and phoning others for free advice.
Randy Fox, superintendent with Rammed Earth Development in Tucson, worked with them and was so pleased with what he saw that he tried to hire them afterward. "I was impressed with their level of detail," he says.
Powell and Gallo used ancient desert-dwelling principles in building the guesthouse. Hence the thick, rammed-earth walls, step-down living area that's almost buried in the ground, and an east-west orientation that soaks up just enough of the sun's heat but blocks it at its strongest times.
The bare interior walls and poured concrete floor, bathtub and bench, combined with light wood cabinetry, cobalt-blue wall tiles and simplistic furnishings from the likes of Ikea, give the space a look that's edgy and modern.
Although the design of the building is officially Powell's, it's just as much Gallo's vision, given that the two appear to share exactly the same ideas.
"We sat next to each other (in college), and we were always in groups together. We developed a common way of seeing things," Powell says.
Were there arguments? No, they say. "But there was a lot of silent treatment," Powell says.
His parents may have to wait awhile before they get their guesthouse, however.
Although the building is nearly finished, it's going to be used as the studio for Gallo Powell Consortium, their new architectural design firm.
They already have helped to remodel a cabin on Mount Lemmon and have consulted on some new homes. They're also designing a bar in Portland, Ore., and are overseeing construction of some new artists' studios in Amado.
As for lessons learned, the major one involved cost.
"Every estimate we made was under," says Powell, who saw his original budget of $80,000 soar to around $130,000.
Would they do any of it differently? Both shake their heads. "I'm definitely pleased," Gallo says.
Powell adds, "I couldn't imagine a better result."
● Contact freelance reporter Gillian Drummond at GCDrummond@aol.com.
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