Martin Erdmann House ARCHITECT: Taylor & Levi DATE: 1908-09 STYLE: English Renaissance Revival The Martin Erdmann House is an outstanding example of a fashionable English Renaissance Revival townhouse that was built 1908-09 to the designs of the prominent New York City architectural firm of Taylor & Levi. It was designed in a period-revival style that reflected the upper-class tastes of the wealthy art collector, Martin Erdmann, and as such, is a rare survivor of the time when the area around Fifth Avenue was an affluent residential neighborhood.

430 Park Avenue, ca. 1943. Warren & Wetmore, the architects of Grand Central Terminal, designed this building for Spencer Fullerton Weaver in 1916. Originally erected as a residential development, the structure in its early years featured separate entrances at 55th and 56th Street; each entryway served as a corridor to one luxury apartment per floor. Due to development pressure and the changing neighborhood south of 57th Street, in the mid 1950s the building was stripped and converted into offices. With renovations done by the architecture firm Emery Roth & Sons, the building's original brick and limestone facade was replaced with a glass wall along its Park Avenue facing side. Between 1955 and 2012, the building hosted a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed automobile showroom. Over nearly a 60 year period, the showroom displayed the latest and greatest imported cars, including a Mercedes-Benz from 1957 to 2012.