 He then joined the 1956 summer session of Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in Venice at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura and spent a formative period studying under notable architects such as Giuseppe Samonà, Jacob Bakema and Giancarlo De Carlo.Sauer stayed another six months in Venice before he returned to America to work for the Philadelphia Planning Department under Edmund Bacon on the Society Hill Redevelopment Plan.He met Louis I Kahn and for post-graduate architectural studies he entered Kahn's Master's Studio at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1959.