Paul Tesar is Alumni Distinguished Professor of Architecture Emeritus at the College of Design at North Carolina State University. He received both his first professional degree in architecture (Dipl.Ing. 1968) as well as his Ph.D. (Dr.techn. 1992) at the Technical University in Vienna, Austria, and his M.Arch. at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1971. Before joining the faculty at NC State in 1975, he practiced in Austria and Switzerland (housing, urban design, competitions) and held teaching appointments at the Technical University Vienna and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. He has lectured and served as guest critic at numerous architecture schools in the U.S. and abroad, was Cass Gilbert Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota in 1996 and 2004, and Visiting Professor at the FH/Hochschule für Technik in Stuttgart in 2000.

His teaching and research interests center on architecture as an expression of culture, particularly on topics concerned with human experience and meaning of the built environment, and the connections between phenomenology and typology – the subject of his dissertation. Paul has numerous publications and conference papers to his credit, and taught graduate studios and seminars on Aesthetics, Typological Theory, and Vernacular Architecture at NC State until his retirement in 2014. He served twice as head of the School of Architecture, and in 2005 was honored with the “Board of Governors Award,” the highest recognition for teaching excellence in the UNC System.