Two structural support beams buckled on the 21st floor of a 38-story under-construction building in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday morning, triggering mass evacuations and street closures, officials said.
The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) received a call just before 8 a. m.
regarding bricks falling from the commercial building at 235 East 42nd Street, the former global headquarters of Pfizer.
The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) stated that the site has an active permit for an office-to-residential conversion, billed as the largest in the city's history, to create a 1,500-unit luxury rental complex.
First responders found that two columns had buckled on the 21st and 22nd floors, with multiple cracks and sagging floors discovered between the 21st and 26th floors.
No injuries were reported, and all workers are accounted for, according to city officials.
However, at least nine neighboring tall buildings and a school were evacuated as a precaution while structural engineers investigated.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) shut down vehicular and pedestrian traffic on East 42nd and East 43rd streets between First and Third avenues to assist emergency operations.
An iron workers union representative described the compromised structure as highly volatile.
“I don’t see anyone coming back to this job for a month at least,” said a New York City Union Iron Workers representative.
“And whoever comes back in, it’s going to be a company that’s going to come in to make it safe first.
Then it’s going to be assessed again. But when you have this type of turnaround...
I’ve been in construction 21 years, and I’ve never seen a beam bent in half. So this is super dangerous.”
City officials held a press conference later that morning to address the emergency and outline safety protocols.
“All of this is a reflection of the fact that our top priority right now is the safety of those who live in this area [and] the safety of those who work in this area,” said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Architectural firm Gensler, leading the redevelopment project to add more than a dozen stories atop the original tower, did not immediately return requests for comment.
Investigations by the DOB and NYPD remain ongoing.
