michelangelo sabatino

Art + Architecture + Design History + Curating + Preservation

Awards, Fellowships, Grants, Scholarships

2025 Docomomo US Modernism in America, The EDITH FARNSWORTH House, Citation of Merit

2024 Charles E. Peterson Award given to Thomas Lozanovski (mentored by Prof. Sabatino) for his HABS submission (1939 Francis J. Benda and Sylvia Valha House)

2024 G. E. Kidder Smith Builds receives the 2024 SAH Exhibition Catalogue Award

2024 Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Visiting Professor, I Tatti, The Harvard University Center For Italian Renaissance Studies (The Modern Pavilion and the “Disappearance” of Architecture)

2023 Richard H Driehaus Foundation award for films and exhibition “A Living Room for Bronzeville: Stories about the Illinois Institute of Technology and Chicago’s South Side”

2023 Alphawood Foundation Chicago award for publication of Maurice Cox: The Life & Work of a City Builder.

2022 Frederick Law Olmsted Society of Riverside, Preservation Award. Benda House & Garden

2021 Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses, 1929-1975 receives AWARD OF EXCELLENCE, Docomomo US Modernism in America Awards

2020 The Allen G. Noble Book Award from the International Society of Landscape, Place, & Material Culture goes to Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony.

2020 Prometheus receives Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals, AIA New York, Center for Architecture

2020 GAHTC (Global Architecture History Teaching Collaborative), Mellon Foundation, publication subsidy for The Global Turn: Six Journeys of Modern Architecture and the City, 1945—1989

2017-19 The Rowe Family College of Architecture Endowed Dean Chair

2017-present,  Inaugural John Vinci Distinguished Research Fellow

2016-18 Visiting Scholar, The Newberry Library, Chicago

Sabatino appointed Visiting Professor, Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli,” Dipartimento di Architettura e Disegno Industriale (Rurale vs Urbano: Dalla Città Giardino al Greenbelt)  (summer 2017).

Terra Foundation for American Art – Academic Program Grant Application, Chicago: City of Design and Commerce, 1890-1990 (steering committee composed of Michael Golec (SAIC), Alison Fisher (AIC), and Michelangelo Sabatino (IIT), Liesl Olson and D. Bradford Hunt (Newberry) (2017).

Sabatino awarded a Visitor’s Travel Grant, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (2017).

Sabatino awarded a Canada Council for the Arts grant to support publication of Canada – Modern Architectures in History (2016).

2012 Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award, Society of Architectural Historians, publication Pride in Modesty: Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy


Conferences, Lectures, Roundtables, Symposia, Exhibitions

Edith Farnsworth’s Country House: Modern Architecture and Society, Symposium: House (ing), UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture, David R. Ravin School of Architecture, Wednesday, November 6th, 2024

Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses, 1929-1975, Barrington’s White House, A Cultural and Community Center, October 18th, 2024, 11:30 am

Chicago Humanities, Michelangelo Sabatino and Chandra Goldsmith-Gray in Conversation: The EDITH FARNSWORTH House, Northwestern University, Norris University Center, October 26th, 3:00 pm

“Taking the country out of the country house” Dr. Edith Farnsworth, Modern Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation, UIUC, College of Fine & Applied Arts, School of Architecture , September 16, 2024

Farnsworth, Mies, and the Fight for Modernism, Chicago Architecture Center, August 27, 2024

Carlo Mollno: Architect & Storyteller, NORR ed + Italian Contemporary Film Festival, Toronto, July 17, 2024

Co-Chair, 2023 SAH Celebrates (with Gunny Harboe)

Lecture: Modern in the Middle Chicago Houses 1929-1975 (with Serge Ambrose), Rice Architecture, Houston

Book Presentation: Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony, Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston

Authors Talk: Carlo Mollino: Architect & Storyteller, The Wolfsonian, Miami Beach, November 30, 2022

Keynote: Chicago’s Modern Architectural Genealogies, Fall Conference: Mid Century to Modern, Illinois State Genealogical Society, October 16, 2022

Architecture & Design NOW series: Arthur C. Erickson: The Modern Image of the Architect in Canada, University of Lethbridge, September 19th, 2022

Authors Talk: Carlo Mollino Architect and Storyteller, AIA New York, Center for Architecture, May 09, 2022 (with Fulvio and Napoleone Ferrari, Alicia Imperiale, Rob Beyer)

Authors Talk: Carlo Mollino Architect and Storyteller, Yale School of Architecture, February 24, 2022

Roundtable: Roger Brown and Miesian Metropolitanism, Chicago Architecture Center, August 11, 2022

Webinar: Teaching the Skyscraper to Soar, Wrightwood 659, October 19th, 2021 (11:30 CT)

Authors Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses, 1929-1975, Frederick Law Olmsted Society, Riverside, October 19th, 2021 (7:00 CT)

Authors Talk: Making Houston Modern, The Dallas Architecture Forum in collaboration with Preservation Dallas, October 14, 2021 (6:30 CT)

Author Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975, Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy, Lake County Forest Preserves, Libertyville/Mettawa, Saturday October 30, 2021 (1-3pm)

Yannis Tsarouchis and his Contemporaries: Body, Building, and Landscape (Wrightwood 659) September 9th, 11:30 (Virtual and Live)

Carlo Mollino: Architect & Storyteller (with Napoleone Ferrari), Italian Design Day 2021, The Future of Creativity: Design Itinerarie between Italy and the USA, 2021

IIT Campus Tour - More than Mies (Docomomo US National Symposium) (May 25th, 5-6 EST)

Virtual Tour: Miesian Materiality (The Design and Building Blocks of IIT) Brick of Chicago (June 5, 2021, 7pm)

North-South: The Mediterranean and the Histories of Modern Architecture, University of Patras, Department of Architecture, Greece (May 18, 2021)

The MIES Project: Architectural Portraits (in conversation with Arina Dahnick), Foundation Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona

Jane’s Walk - Heritage and Campus Planning (Darrel Babuk, Warren Price)

Modern in the Middle Road Rally (Self-Guided Motor Tour of MCH houses in the Fox River Valley), Farnsworth House

Living Modern: Surveying Influential Houses and their Inhabitants (with Iker Gil, Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster, Nina and Toni Helstein), MAS Context 2021 Spring Talks series.

Enclaves of Modernism: Houses from Chicago to New Canaan (with Barry Bergdoll, William D. Earls, and Susan Benjamin), The Glass House, New Canaan Library (Connecticut Humanities and the New Canaan Community Foundation)

Romanesque Architecture - Photography by Architect Jong Soung Kimm (with Jong Soung Kimm, Reed Kroloff, Alice Kimm, Cynthia Vranas Olsen)

Book Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses, 1929-1976 (with Justin Miller, Susan Benjamin, Margaret and Paul Lurie), Glessner House

Book Talk: Making Houston Modern: The Life and Work of Howard Barnstone (with Barrie Scardino Bradley, Stephen Fox, Francois de Menil, Adam Yarkinsky), AIA NYC Center for Architecture and The Glass House

Book Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses, 1929-1975 (with Susan Benjamin, Neil Harris, and Terri Edelstein), Chicago Public Library, Chicago Collections, AIA Chicago

The Legacy of John Moutoussamy - Chicago Architect (with Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe) Chicago Architecture Center, IIT Architecture Chicago

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Modern Masterpiece: Unity Temple, Panel Discussion with Gunny Harboe, Dorothy Krotzer, and Lauren Levine moderated by Frank Matero and Michelangelo Sabatino (Historic Preservation, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania)

Book Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses, 1929-1975 (with Susan Benjamin and the participation of the Margaret and Paul Lurie and Barry Alberts), Evanston History Center

Discussions in Architectural History and Conservation (with Danny Abramson, Fallon Aidoo, Maristella Casciato, Igor Marjanovic, Eric Mumford), Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, February 10, 2020

Lilly Reich and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (with Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, Ivo Hammer, June Finfer, Cynthia Vranas Olsen), Mies Society, IIT Architecture Chicago

Book Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975 (with Susan Benjamin and Pauline Saliga) (Caxton Club, Chicago Art Deco Society, and the Union League Club of Chicago Library)

Brick, Steel, and Glass. A virtual tour, Brick of Chicago (with Will Quam)

Hilb’s (Hilberseimer) Day, A Celebration of Light for the Winter Solstice, Mies Society and College of Architecture (Reed Kroloff, Kevin Harrington, John Vinci, Jong Soung Kimm, Steve Weiss, Ed Polich, Zurich Esposito, Alex Krikhaar)

Chicagoland: A Laboratory for 20th Century Design Innovation (with Aamena Ansari, Bud Rodecker, Michelangelo Sabatino, Martin Thaler, Marcia Weese (IIT Institute of Design, IIT CoA, Design Museum of Chicago)

Book Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975 (with Susan Benjamin, Meg Kindelin) (Landmarks Illinois)

Book Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975 (with Stuart Cohen, Susan Benjamin, Michelangelo Sabatino), (SAH-Chicago Chapter)

Book Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975 (with Susan Benjamin, Reed Kroloff, Theo Prudon, and Gwendolyn Wright), (Archtober, AIA NYC, Center for Architecture), October 28th, 2020

Book Talk: Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975 (with Susan Benjamin, Reed Kroloff, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Margaret McCurry, Lynn Osmond (IIT College of Architecture, Mies Society, Chicago Architecture Center), October 15, 2020

Docomomo US Tour Day: Freeark House Virtual Tour, October 6, 2020

Side by Side. Farnsworth House + The Philip Johnson Glass House (Robin Hill photographer, Hilary Lewis, Chief Curator & Creative Director (The Glass House), Scott Mehaffey, Executive Director (Farnsworth House), October 1st, 2020.  

Book Talk: Making Houston Modern: The Life and Architecture of Howard Barnstone (with Stephen Fox and Barrie Scardino Bradley), Preservation Houston, AIA Houston, Houston Mod, Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Living Legacy: The Houses of Mies, Wright, and Their Students (22nd Annual Arts & Crafts Conference; “Of Outstanding Value to Humanity”: Chicago and the Arts & Crafts Movement; Initiatives in Art and Culture, Saturday, September 12, 2020

South Side Modern: IIT and the Building of Chicago, Chicago Architecture Center, July 31, 2019

Tadao Ando: Houses for Art, Wrightwood 659, October 10th, 2019, 6:30 pm

The MIES Project, S. R. Crown Hall, IIT, September 18-November 1, 2019

The MIES Project, To Chicago from Berlin, Farnsworth House (Barnsworth Gallery), August 6-September 8, 2019

Symposium: 200 Years of New Harmony: A Role Model for the Future, Atheneum, New Harmony, October 11, 2019

Workshop: South Side Modern: IIT and the Building of Chicago, IIT, CoA, August 26th-27th, 2019

Poetry and Place: Edith Farnsworth & Italy, Italian Institute of Culture, The Poetry Foundation, The Farnsworth House, The Newberry Library, Mies van der Rohe Society, IIT, CoA, December 6th (2018), May 14th (2019)

2nd Annual Holiday Gospel Celebration, IIT Architecture, Mies Society, November 16, 2018

Symposium: Ando and Le Corbusier: Masters of Architecture , Wrightwood 659, Friday, November 9, 2018, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Moderator Roundtable – “States of Design Education,”Exhibit Columbus National SymposiumDesign, Community, and Progressive Preservation  (Ball State, Ohio State, Indiana University, University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, University of Kentucky), September 27, 2018, 3-5pm.

Conversation: An Evening with Helmut Jahn, June 29, 2018

Inaugural Holiday Gospel Celebration, In Celebration of the National Museum of Gospel Music, IIT Architecture, Mies Society, December 8, 2017

Lecture: Edgar Miller and the Legacy of Arts & Crafts, Saturday, The Glasner Studio, Saturday, October 21, 2017, 1:00-4:00 pm

Lecture, “Beyond Wilderness: Modern Architectures in Canada,” University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, Thursday, October 5, 2017, 6:30-8:00 pm

Lecture: (with Serge Ambrose) Preserving the Modern: Winston Elting Architect in Riverside, Chicago Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians, Charnley-Perksy House, Thursday, August 31st, 2017 6:00 pm

Lecture, "Canada-Modern Architectures in History," with Rhodri Windsor Liscombe and Adele Weder, Inform Interiors, Vancouver, June 29th, 2017

Book Presentation- Canada: Modern Architectures in History, RAIC Festival of Architecture, Ottawa, May 26th, 2:00-3:00 pm, RAIC | Architecture Canada | The leading voice of architecture in Canada

Roundtable – Canada: Modern Architectures in in History (introduced by Dr. Jessica Mace, Editor-in-Chief, JSSAC) 43rd Annual Conference, Niagara-on-the-Lake, May 25th, 10:00-11:00 am, Notre societe

“Saudi Arabia ‘Leaps’ into Modernism,” The Global Petroleumscape, TU Delft (with Mohammed Alkhabbaz and Saad Alghamdi) (May 17-19, 2017).

Lecture: "Beyond Wilderness: Modern Architectures in Canada," The Arts Club of Chicago, Thursday, May 4th, 12-1:00

Lecture: “Columbus is not a Museum,” Columbus, Indiana, February 20, 2016


Academic Leadership and Community

Historic New Harmony Advisory Board

Advisory Board - Docomomo Journal (Docomomo International)

Docomomo US Board Member

Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative
The Global Turn: Modern Architectures and Movements Since 1851

Canadian Modern, Dalhousie Architectural Press, Founding Commissioning Editor (2013-19).

The Frederick Law Olmsted Society of Riverside: Board Member.

Paparo Edizioni: Editorial Board Member.

EAHN Architectural Histories: Advisory Board Member.

Riverside: Landscape Advisory Committee.

Journal of Architecture, Regional Editor.





©2020 Michelangelo Sabatino