A Manhattan Town House Warmed
By the Heat of the Earth Below

What: 25-foot-wide town house with four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms in more than 6,000 square feet.

Where: New York

Amenities: Elevator, 875 feet of terrace space, butler's pantry, ground-floor office space with separate entrance.

Asking Price: $7.825 million

Opening Bid*: $7.1 million

Listing Agents: Bruce Ehrmann, Stribling & Associates, 646-613-2602.

Due Diligence: This five-story town house stands in Manhattan's TriBeCa district, a few blocks north of the World Trade Center site. An unusual geothermal energy system provides heating, cooling and hot water.  Pipes extend about 1,400 feet into the earth, where the temperature is always  about 52 degrees, according to architect Alexander Gorlin, who writes on the home in his book "Creating the New American Townhouse." The pipes transfer energy to the house, where two-layer-thick concrete exterior walls, filled with thermal materials, trap the energy and distribute it, Mr. Gorlin says. (All floors also have radiant heating systems.) The late New York architect and developer John Petrarca designed the property and lived there with his wife, business-journalism professor Sarah Bartlett, until his death from lung cancer in 2003. The project was completed in 2002. The home's interior includes limestone-and-Merbau wood floors. 

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