Paul Laseau, distinguished Professor Emeritus of Architecture, author, and artist, passed away on January 11 at the age of 87.

A professor at Ball State University’s College of Architecture and Planning for more than 30 years, Laseau graduated Cum Laude from the Catholic University of America in 1960 before receiving his Masters of Architecture from SUNY Buffalo in 1971.

Before becoming a professor, Laseau worked for several architecture firms in the U.S. and France, including for Marcel Breuer, working on projects across the world. He and his wife, Margaret, started their lives together traveling extensively through Europe, and would return to Paris, Greece, and England often with their family over the years.

His first teaching post was at Ohio University in the 1970s before moving the Laseau family to Muncie, Ind., in 1976. While at Ball State, Laseau co-founded the Design Communication Association (DCA), an international professional society for architects and designers.

In addition to teaching, Laseau, along with late colleague Bruce Meyer, co-founded the UniverCity academic festivals held at Ball State in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, which brought world-renowned thinkers, activists, and artists from several disciplines to Muncie.

Laseau also regularly took groups of students – and family members -- on trips abroad to draw and study architecture in Greece, East Asia, and France. Additionally, he held numerous workshops nationwide on design communication, freehand drawing, visual notes, and the role of digital media in design communication.

One of a handful of nationally recognized authors in the field of design communication, Laseau authored several books including, “Graphic Thinking for Architects and Designers”, “Visual Notes”, “Graphic Problem Solving”, and “Freehand Sketching”, many of which are still in use at universities today. He regularly traveled to lecture on his books’ many topics, including sketching and how to visually organize drawings. Laseau’s books were republished in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Spanish.

After retiring, Laseau became an accomplished watercolor artist, with several shows throughout the Midwest as well as self-published collections of paintings.

When not sketching dilapidated barns or doing watercolors of Greek villages, Laseau could be found watching tennis, making Greek food from scratch, and in earlier days buying cheese at White Feather Farms. Among his many accomplishments were encouraging his family to learn to draw using the right side of their brains, and collecting furniture that was well-designed but not comfortable in any way, much to the chagrin of his children.

Laseau loved Turner Classic Movies, hated NFL pre-game shows, and thought the word “underrated” was over-used, made incredible “margaritas”, and encouraged his children and grandchild to continue to be creative.

He is survived by: his two sisters, Mary and Ann; three children, Michele, Kevin, and Madeleine; and grandson Frankie. He was preceded in death by his wife Margaret in 2019. His children like to think that just like at the beginning of their parents’ relationship, their mother is asking him once again “What are you doing in my park?”