In 1961, he enrolled at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he studied architecture because it consisted of diagrams that rendered objects in space with accuracy and precision. He also studied with the sculptor Mirko Basaldella at Harvard's Carpenter Center that he cited was an early influence. After one year, he was summarily grand juried out of the GSD by the faculty for being "overly involved in his work". By chance, Laffoley was given an issue of Progressive Architecture by his uncle with Frederick Kiesler on the cover. Laffoley felt Kiesler work was what he had been searching for, and after writing 17 letters, Laffoley came to New York and succeeded in apprenticing with Frederick Kiesler. While canvasing the art scene in New York, Laffoley would meet Andy Warhol, who offered him a place to sleep at his 87th Street fire station if he would report on late night television between 1 and 5 am. It was from watching these Indian Head Test Patterns along with his early exposure to a Hindu tutor that Laffoley would arrive at a format for his large scale paintings that would dominate his work for five decades.