After returning from Europe, Schmidt worked as an apprentice in the New York architecture office of Carrére and Hastings for four years. There he learned not only to build using modern materials, but also to design in the classical styles favored by Beaux Arts trained architects. Founding his own practice in 1912, he took small residential jobs, remodeling townhouses in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and some commercial projects. During this period, he also completed a townhouse for Herbert J. Johnson and in 1917, the alteration of a townhouse at
39 East 63rd Street for
Grenville T. Emmet (later
U.S. Minister to Austria and
the Netherlands), Schmidt's first important commission. Two years after the Emmet project's completion,
Architectural Record wrote about it, bringing him professional recognition and attracting new patrons.
Sutton Place In the early 1920s, Schmidt was hired by wealthy socialites
Anne Harriman Vanderbilt, second wife of
William Kissam Vanderbilt; and
Anne Morgan, daughter of banker
J. Pierpont Morgan; and
Elisabeth Marbury, to design their townhouses in the then-new
Sutton Place neighborhood in Manhattan, which up to that point had been known as a "squalid place." For Vanderbilt, who had purchased the former home of Effingham B. Sutton, at 1 Sutton Place, Mott renovated the existing structure beyond recognition, transforming the home into a 13-room townhouse with terraced gardens that overlooked the
East River. The $75,000 renovation was complemented by interiors designed by
Elsie de Wolfe. While the society pages of
The New York Times initially scoffed at the choice of location, and referred to the area as an "Amazon Enclave," and by 1929, the neighborhood had firmly transformed into a luxury enclave.
Pook's Hill In 1926, Schmidt built a gracious brick country home for his family in
Bedford, New York. It was called Pook's Hill, after a children's book by
Rudyard Kipling. The house won first prize in a 1931 competition for "A Common Brick House," published in
The Architectural Forum, and was exhibited featured in the
Architectural League of New York's 1932 yearbook. Schmidt sold the home in the 1950s.
Other works Apartment buildings designed by Schmidt include
655 Park Avenue in 1924, 1088 Park Avenue in 1924, and the Vincent Astor Townhouse in 1926.
Vincent Astor was the only son of
John Jacob Astor IV (who died aboard the
Titanic) and
Ava Lowle Willing. He also designed the Italian Renaissance houses along the north side of Hardee Road in
Coral Gables French City Village. His civic works include the
Mount Kisco Municipal Complex. He also designed the 1966 Susan B. Wagner wing of
Gracie Mansion in
New York City, an $800,000 two-story addition that included a ballroom modeled after the one in a 1790 house built for the Lyman family of
Waltham, Massachusetts. ==Personal life==