Pioneer Information
Born in New York state, Mott briefly attended the University of Rochester before moving to Flint, Michigan, around 1910, where he worked for Weston-Mott, an axle manufacturer affiliated with the General Motors Corporation. In 1914 Mott, a self-described “land-use engineer” partnered with his brother-in-law, landscape architect William Pitkin, Jr., to design a subdivision in Flint for General Motors employees. The two practitioners continued to collaborate in designing estate grounds and subdivisions, and in 1919 they relocated their practice to Cleveland, Ohio, where they incorporated the firm William Pitkin Jr. & Seward H. Mott – Landscape Architects in 1923. The practitioners designed numerous subdivisions and estates, such as Kingwood in Mansfield, Ohio (now Kingwood Center). In the early 1930s, the pair collaborated on several sites in Cleveland, including Rockefeller Park, Shaker Lakes, and Ambler Park, before disbanding.
In 1934 Mott was engaged by the Federal Housing Administration to lead programs intended to lower housing costs and stimulate the construction industry. In addition, in the early 1930s he oversaw the Landscape Division’s, a sub-committee of Cleveland’s City Plan Commission, Civil Works administration-funded work producing plans and surveys of Cleveland’s parklands with William Strong and Arthur Alexander.
In 1944 Mott became the executive director of the Urban Land Institute, where he promoted standards for urban revitalization and suburban development; established councils to study residential, commercial, and industrial designs; and co-edited the first edition of the Community Builders Handbook (1947). In 1951 he returned to private practice, planning shopping centers, suburban communities, and a resort in the Caribbean. Mott passed away in 1965 and is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Hamilton, New York.
