[2] In 1885 he formed William Schickel & Company in association with Isaac E. Ditmars (1850–1934) and Hugo Kafka (1843–1913).

Schickel was hired in 1879 to design and build a replacement for the original 1867 chapel of the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (New York City).

The priory's intricate use of materials and its overall polychromy, characteristics of the High Victorian Gothic style popular in the late 19th century, reflect Schickel's training in Bavaria and the strong influence there of Friedrich von Gärtner.

Among Schickel's most celebrated works were the impressive German-Baroque edifice of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1898), now on the National Register of Historic Places ,[5] and the Neo-Gothic St. Louis's Church (1889) in Buffalo, New York, with elements of French and German Gothic design including a pierced spire influenced by Cologne Cathedral.

[8] Schickel also designed the massive St. Joseph Seminary, Dunwoodie, NY, begun 1893 and taking five years to complete.