Paul is the first vice president/president elect of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and was a design member of the Advisory Service Panel for the Southwest Waterfront in Washington, D.C. in 1998. A member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Paul was a guest speaker at the 1999 Congress in Milwaukee, and as a member of the American Society of Architectural Perspectivists, Paul received the Society's Award for Excellence in Graphic Representation of Architecture in 1995. Paul earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree with honors from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) where he served as a design instructor and visiting critic. During his senior year at CMU, Paul won the Stewardson Traveling Fellowship, enabling him to travel extensively, exploring urban design and architecture in Western Europe.