REAL ESTATE…with a difference: New York Artist’s Penthouse!

Sculptor Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was born in Vienna, Austria in 1867, and emigrated to the United States in the late 1800s. As soon as he arrived in New York City, he applied for citizenship and went to work for a firm of house decorators. At age 21, he competed for the design of the east doors and tympanum of New York’s Trinity Church and won. This was the beginning of his short but famous career. Before he was struck down and killed by a car while leaving the Metropolitan Opera in New York City at the age of 48, he had already won many notable awards from his projects in major cities throughout the East and Midwest. Commissions carried him as far south as the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, where he executed numerous sculptures in and on the house such as the statues of St. Louis and Joan of Arc.

The last home of Bitter, his wife and three children, was built in 1901. It was the visionary custom-designed penthouse in The Studio Building, by developer Walter Russell Bond. The Grand Hall (Bitter’s former studio) has a ceiling over 22 feet in height and hand-painted by the famous Spaniard artist Ramon Canet. Its floor-to-ceiling window wall was installed in 2010 and the eight-foot stone wood-burning fireplace was imported from the Iberian Peninsula. With the room measuring 45-feet long, the current owners have been able to easily entertain as many as 350 guests at one function. The home is 4,187 square feet with a reception hall, three bedrooms and three baths, a den, an original wood paneled dining room with Gothic windows, wine cellar and staff accommodations. Views overlook the Museum of Natural History, Central Park and Manhattan. The full-service cooperative building amenities include a full-time doorman, private storage, playroom and central laundry room.

Architects designed a double height studio, 45-feet long for sculptor Karl Bitter. Was $20 million – now $13.25 million.

More info: elliman.com

Photography by Evan Joseph.