As an architect for almost 40 years, Frank Couch has built far more than that which can be constructed from wood, steel and cement.

Couch, of Franklin N. Couch Architects, 188 Genesee St., Auburn, was recently awarded Options for Independence's Business of the Year award. The honor recognizes Couch for frequently consulting with the living center on grant applications to the state, as well as advising them on matters of handicap accessibility on commercial properties.

“His portfolio of designing inclusive buildings and going above and beyond what the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requires makes (Couch) an asset to our community,” said Domenick Paradise, Second Vice Chair on Options' Board of Directors.

Couch has overseen a wide array of commercial, industrial and residential architectural projects since 1973, when he started his firm in Auburn. His recent accomplishments include the expansion of Creekside Books and Coffee on 35 Fennell St. in Skaneateles and an addition to the home of Robert and Louise McFayden on Owasco Lake.

“He was available whenever we needed him,” Louise said. “I would very much like to refer him to anyone building in the area.”

Architectural projects provide Couch with an opportunity to apply both the creative and technical parts of his mind.

“It's a nice challenge to take an existing building and try to make a substantial addition to it,” Couch said. “And there's always more than one solution to the problem.”

But Couch often chooses projects that will benefit more than his mind. He prefers to apply his architectural know-how to several charities. As president of the New York State and Bermuda Lions Foundation, he oversees the funding of local construction projects that need money to reach completion. Couch also works with a not-for-profit group, Metro, to renovate the Brown Memorial Methodist Church on 2112 Geddes St. in Syracuse.

It may be inviting to speculate that a committed architect such as Couch liked to build things as a child, whether out of Legos or Lincoln Logs. Indeed, Couch displayed such a predisposition towards architecture from a young age. He spent many hours with his friends in the basement of his childhood home, designing and crafting items like lamps.

In high school, Couch began pursuing his career in architecture following a exchange with another student in his high school shop class. As Couch labored away at a drafting board, a classmate asked him if he planned to become an architect.

Couch's reply: “What's an architect?”

As soon as the classmate told him more about the career field, Couch set out to enter it.

Couch completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture at Syracuse University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively, before working for a few firms in Syracuse. After accumulating enough experience to do so, Couch decided to start his own. He has since built a sterling reputation with area clients and commercial developers alike.

“He's proven time and time again that he and his staff are very creative and willing to listen to the owners' requests,” said Biff Bonnivier, a private investor who has worked together with Couch on four projects, including one currently in the planning stages.

Among the many projects Couch has worked on, banks occupy a special place for him. The former National Bank of Auburn in Locke presented Couch with an opportunity to bounce back from the recession of the mid '70s when the building was demolished by a truck that veered off course very early one morning.

“The only thing remaining was the vault,” Couch said.

Banks also once provided Couch with a particularly liberating outlet for his creative capacity as an architect. Designing their teller boxes and high ceilings encapsulated the balance of creativity and engineering that Couch cherishes in architecture. However, he laments what he feels is a recent decline in the quality of these buildings.

“Nowadays they're just building boxes,” Couch said.

Today Couch also notices more and more people straying away from famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright's maxim that “form follows function.”

“It's like people are having a competition for how many gables they can fit on one roof,” Couch said.

Clients often present Couch with unreasonable requests concerning the projects Couch is completing for them. As often as he tries to stress the affordability of a window or wall in the shape of a rectangle as opposed to a circle, some persist in compounding their bill. Others change their minds as the project unfolds.

“Some understand it, the majority doesn't,” Couch said.

Couch has applied his architectural knowledge to the design of his own home in Skaneateles. As the person who would live in his creation, however, he became a little too ambitious, much like some of his clients who harbor lofty visions of their abodes.

“I wanted to put in a three-quarters geodesic dome, and the supplier said he wouldn't tell me the price, but that I had to change my design,” Couch said with a laugh.

Today Couch shares that home with his wife of 41 years, Dorothy. Together they have raised four children - Christopher, Stephen, Paula, and David. Only Stephen has pursued a similiar career path as the one taken by Couch. He currently works for the Army Corps of Engineers as an ocean engineer.

“I joked with him that we can design underwater houses,” Couch said.

Couch has been able to pass on his knowledge of the architecture practice to children from area schools. His office has hosted educational visits from students who are eyeing architecture as a potential career field, as Couch himself once did.

In more than thirty years of working as an architect, Couch has accumulated a long list of projects on his resume. But there are still a few enterprises that he would not mind adding to his portfolio.

“I know I'm daydreaming, but I would love to be the Disney World designer,” Couch said.

Staff writer David Wilcox can be contacted at 253-5311, ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net