An 1885 University of Tennessee graduate, Edwin Carpenter, went on to M.I.T. to study architecture and received a degree in 1887. In Tennessee his architectural commissions included design of the Columbia military arsenal, Maury County Courthouse (Columbia), the Stahlman Building (Nashville’s first skyscraper, built in 1903), and the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville. His national acclaim arises from his design of high-rise apartment buildings in New York City. He became a popular architect of the Renaissance Revival style apartment design and has been called “the father of modern apartment design in the city.” His most important designs in New York City include apartment houses at 116 E. Fifty-Eighth Street, 960 Park Avenue, and 630 Park Avenue, as well as the Lincoln Building, a 53-story high-rise on E. Forty-Second Street.