Michelangelo Sabatino

Professor; Director of Ph.D. Program in Architecture; Inaugural John Vinci Distinguished Research Fellow

Office

Rm. 108
3410 S. State Street

Office Hours

By appointment

Courses taught

ARCH 497 Modern Architecture as Heritage
ARCH 500 Global Modernisms
ARCH 502 Architectures of the Americas
ARCH 502 Mies vs Wright
ARCH 601 Doctoral Methods (CHICAGO: METROPOLIS)
ARCH 595 Architecture Research Forum

Expertise

Michelangelo Sabatino is trained as an architect, preservationist, and historianin universities in Canada, Italy, and the United States. His award-winning research broadly addresses intersections between culture, technology, and design in the built environment. From his research on preindustrial vernacular traditions and their influence on modern architectures of the Mediterranean region, to his current project, which looks at the transnational forces that have shaped the architecture, infrastructure, and landscape of the Americas over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, he has trained new light on larger patterns of architectural discourse and production.

Education

2003-05: Research Associate and Visiting Fellow, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
1999-2005: Ph.D., University of Toronto, Department of Fine Art
1998: Laurea in Architettura, Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia

Teaching Experience

Before joining IIT’s faculty, Sabatino taught courses and seminars at Harvard University, the University of Houston, the University of Toronto and Yale University. Sabatino also participates as studio critic for design reviews at various universities.

Professional Experience

2018 – docomomo Journal– International Advisory Board
2018: Docomomo US, Board of Directors
2017-present: Editorial Board, Applied Research and Design (ORO Editions, Goff Books, AR+D)
2017: Visiting Professor, Università degli Studi della Campania
2016: Juror, Docomomo US Awards – Modernism in America
2016: Juror, Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship
2016: Visiting Professor, IUAV, Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Dipartimento di Architettura Costruzione Conservazione
2014: Chair, Philip Johnson Exhibition Award Catalog Committee (SAH)
2013 - 2014: Associate Editor, Reviews, Journal of Architectural Education
2013 - Present: Series Editor, Canadian Modern (Dalhouise Architectural Press)
2013 - 2014: Consultant, Southern Modernisms, Portuguese Ministry of Education & Science
2013 - 2014: Juror, Modern Italian Studies, American Academy in Rome
2013 - 2016: Board of Directors, Society of Architectural Historians
2012 - 2014: Board of Directors, Rice Design Alliance
2011 - Present: Editorial Board, Architectural Histories (EAHN)
2011 - Present: NAAB Visiting Team Roster
2010 - Present: Editorial Board, Journal of Architectural Education
2009 - Present: Regional Editor, Journal of Architecture

Selected Publications, Exhibits, and Recent Research

Bellerby, and M. Sabatino (foreword), Eppich House II: The Story of an Arthur Ericsson Masterwork (Figure 1 Publishing, forthcoming in 2019)

Nicholson, Ben, and M. Sabatino, eds., Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, forthcoming in 2019)

Avermaete, T. and M. Sabatino, The Global Turn: Architecture and the Built Environment Since World War Two (NAi Publishers, forthcoming in 2019)

Windsor-Liscombe, Rhodri, and M. Sabatino, Canada – Modern Architectures in History (London: Reaktion Books, 2016)

M. Sabatino, The Pavilion and the Cave: Architectures of Arthur C. Erickson (Montreal: McGill Queens University Press, 2016)


Fraser, Linda and M. Sabatino eds. Arthur Erickson: Layered Landscapes - Drawings from the Canadian Architectural Archives (Halifax: Dalhousie Architectural Press, 2013) (second edition 2016)

Pride in Modesty: Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy (University of Toronto Press, 2010) (Italian translation: Edizioni Franco Angeli, 2013).

Lejeune, Jean-François, and M. Sabatino, eds., Modern Architecture and the Mediterranean: Vernacular Dialogues and Contested Identities (Routledge, 2010) (Italian translation: Trent: LISt Lab Laboratorio, 2016).

Ferrari, Napoleone and M. Sabatino, Carlo Mollino. Architect and Storyteller (Zurich: Park Books: 2021)

Benjamin, Susan and M. Sabatino, Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-1975 (New York: The Monacelli Press, 2020) (2nd edition 2022)

Fox, Stephen, Barrie Scardino Bradley and M. Sabatino, Making Houston Modern:

The Life and Architecture of Howard Barnstone (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020)

Awards

2017, Terra Foundation for American Art – Academic Program Grant Application
2017, Visitor’s Travel Grant, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
2016-, Visiting Scholar, The Newberry Library (Chicago)
2016, Canada Council for the Arts
2014 Grant Award, Mellon Foundation, MIT Global Architecture History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC)
2012-13 Travel Grants to Professionals in the Visual Arts, Canada Council for the Arts
2012 Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award, Society of Architectural Historians (SAH)
2011 Commendation, CICA Awards, ICAC (IUA)
2011 Best Book Award, Southeast Chapter of Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH)
2011 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies (MLA)
2011-2012 Wilder Green Fellow, The MacDowell Colony
2011 Grant, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
2011 Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship, University of Houston
2011 Best Book Award (20th and 21st century category) (AAIS)
2010-2011 Visiting Scholars Program, Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)
2009-10 New Researcher Award, Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC)
2009 Assistance for the promotion of architecture program, Canada Council for the Arts
2009 Japanese Studies Fellowships, The Japan Foundation, New York
2009 Grant, Robert Lee Blaffer Foundation
2009 Grant, Architecture Center Houston Foundation (ArCH, AIA)
2008-09 Best Paper Award, European Association for Architectural Education -Architectural Research Centers Consortium International Conference, Copenhagen
2006-07 Grant, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
2006-07 Scholarship, Georgia O’Keefe Museum Research Center
2005-06 Fellowship, The Wolfsonian–Florida International University
2004-05 Postdoctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
2000-03 Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Memberships

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA)
College Art Association (CAA)
Docomomo-US
Society of Architectural Historians (SAH)
European Architectural History Network (EAHN)