Austin Design Director

Wyatt Frantom

FAIA, LEED-AP BD+C
Principal, Design Director, Austin

Before an interest in architecture launched decades of designing, leading, and executing innovative projects all over the world, Wyatt lived in small-town Ohio. Growing up meant baling hay and milking cows on the farms of his extended family. From an early age he also worked at the family business, Frantom Sunoco, a gas and service station owned and operated for over five decades by his father. These experiences instilled in him the ethic for “a day’s work done well” and an integrity that informs Wyatt’s approach to architecture today: Iterative. Hands-on. Highly collaborative.

Since leaving Sidney, Ohio, Wyatt has been hungry for travel, curious and determined to immerse himself in new places. He’s lived and worked everywhere from Houston and LA to Bangalore and Paris. His passion for environmental stewardship took root in the woods, fields, and farms of his youth, but it was this exposure to global perspectives that shaped his design philosophy. To be “responsive and responsible,” he focuses on the future he hopes to paint for his daughters.

Say hello to Wyatt

Wyatt’s hometown of Sidney, Ohio, is small but not without architectural merit. It’s home to one of renowned Chicago architect Louis Sullivan’s final designs, a National Historic Landmark referred to as one of Sullivan’s “jewel boxes.” With its clean modern brick and terracotta form, the People’s Federal Savings and Loan Association bank inspired a young Wyatt. It still does. He sees the word THRIFT in large letters adorning the bank’s front entrance as both a reflection of his modest rural upbringing and a resonant statement of design intended to do more with less.

Wyatt's Hometown Pic
People’s Federal Savings and Loan Association by Louis Sullivan
Sidney, Ohio
Wyatt Sketches
Wyatt has developed a passion for detailing and could discuss the fine grain aspects of how to detail a curtain wall for hours.
“My reasons for loving architecture now are different than when I first started. Ultimately, my purpose in the profession is to have a positive impact on the built environment, our communities and, with that, the natural environment.”
Wyatt's Motorcycle

Wyatt loves riding his motorcycle and sees in the high-speed balancing act a parallel design principle: In the design process, as when on two wheels, one must “Maintain Inertia, Keep Moving.”

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