Results tagged “nicholasbartha”

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a modern design for a townhouse to be built at 34 East 62nd Street. The lot, just east of Madison Avenue, has been empty ever since Dr. Nicholas Bartha blew up his home, which seemed like an effort to keep his ex-wife from taking the home as part of their acrimonious divorce settlement.

The aftershocks of the explosion that destroyed 34 East 62nd St., which Dr. Nicholas Bartha blew up in a suicidal fit of pique directed at his former wife in 2006, continue to reverberate on the Upper East Side. The New York Times describes how neighbors are complaining to the Landmarks Preservation Commission that the proposed plans for its replacement fit neither the style nor the personality of the block. Instead of rebuilding the destroyed Victorian brownstone, the current property owner Janna Bullock and her architect Preston Phillips want to build a modern-style building. Because the property is within the Upper East Side Historic District, LPC approval is needed before any building can proceed.

The death of Dr. Nicholas Bartha, the Upper East Side doctor who allegedly blew up his four-story townhouse, was ruled a suicide. Bartha died from the third degree burns he sustained from the blast; his obesity and diabetes complicated his recovery, and the NY Times says he had developed an infection. The Post has a photograph of Bartha being pulled from the rubble that's kind of spooky.

It's explosion porn: The NY Post has video of the East 62nd townhouse explosion. The footage, which is being examined by investigators, is from a surveillance tape across the street, and you can see Parks employee Jennifer Panicali walking on the sidewalk before a big cloud of smoke appears. The Post has the play-by-play of the video as well () and says the street will reopen next Monday.

Officials have sent tubing found in the wreckage of 34 East 62nd Street for testing. The townhouse that once stood there was blown up on Monday, apparently by the owner Dr. Nicholas Bartha in a suicide bid and elaborate revenge plot in order to not pay his ex-wife a hefty divorce settlement, thus gassing the four story building. Fire officials found clamps and lengths of rubber tubing at the site, and there are conflicting reports about gas problems (former tenants say they've existed while Con Ed says they responded to only two complaints made). While no one has been able to question Bartha yet, we think he'd probably get off with an insanity defense - have you read his email?

Authorities found a hose that was attached from a gas line to the area where a home once stood at 34 East 62nd Street, making them believe that the line had been tampered. The building's owner, Dr. Nicholas Bartha, who claimed he would blow up the building in an email, is still at Weill Cornell Medical Center with third degree burns after being found in his building's rubble on Monday. Bartha had been in the middle of a messy divorce, and had been ordered to sell the four-story townhouse to pay ex-wife Cordula Hahn over $4 million. The NY Times looks at Bartha's divorce and how his family was driven away by his behavior, apparently "bursting into angry tirades" when his daughters would call him. And others say he had been acting strange lately, with a fellow doctor saying, "He went from being a socially acceptable oddball to being unacceptable." Hahn, who now lives in Washington Heights, only told reporters, "It's tragic."

As the dust has literally settled from what used to be a four story building at 34 East 62nd, the rather sordid and sad story of the building's owner, Dr. Nicholas Bartha, emerged. Bartha seemed to have blown up the building in a suicide attempt and a lasting effort to make sure his ex-wife wouldn't get the $5 million house in a settlement. After a judge had ruled that the landmark house should be divided and split as part of the his divorce settlement with Cordula Bartha weeks ago, a sheriff's deputy served Bartha with eviction papers on Friday. And their marriage seemed tumultuous - one judge felt Bartha "intentionally traumatized" his wife, a Holocaust survivor, with swastikas and more. The Times linked to the divorce ruling that gave partial ownership of the building to Mrs. Bartha.