A swath of Midtown remained cordoned off Tuesday evening after structural columns at a 42nd Street office tower buckled, though city officials said the damaged building had stopped moving enough for contractors to begin installing temporary shoring.
What was New York City’s largest office-to-residential conversion project came to an abrupt halt as beams supporting some of the upper floors of the former Pfizer headquarters began to buckle. Emergency crews arrived at the scene shortly after 8 a.m. after a 911 call reported bricks falling from the building.
By noon, authorities said they were concerned about a potential collapse. By the evening, some residents had been allowed to return home. Officials said they were continuing to evaluate other evacuated buildings to determine when additional residents and businesses could reenter.
No injuries were reported.
Earlier in the day, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said inspectors had observed additional movement in one of the compromised columns and warned the building remained unstable. By late afternoon, the Department of Buildings said that engineers had completed an initial assessment and detected no further movement, clearing the way for contractors to begin installing temporary shoring.
Fears of a collapse led to a massive emergency response, including the evacuation of neighboring buildings and the closure of a busy stretch of East 42nd Street between Second and Third avenues.
The building is part of a residential conversion project led by developer MetroLoft that calls for about 1,600 apartments. As part of the project, MetroLoft is adding four new floors to the existing structure. The plans also include adding 19 levels to an adjacent 10-story structure.
Building application documents put the estimated cost of the 729,000-square-foot project at $98.7 million.
Fire officials determined that two columns buckled on the 21st and 22nd floors, leading floors above to sag. Videos posted to social media appeared to show damage inside the building.
Gensler, the architecture firm that designed the project, declined to comment and referred questions to the developer, MetroLoft.
In a written statement, MetroLoft Senior Managing Director Mitchell Wasser said the company is “working closely with the Department of Buildings to understand the full scope of the situation.”
A company spokesperson said they did not have further comment about what happened or whether they had previously identified structural integrity problems at the site.
City buildings records show a site safety manager reported that a steel beam on the 21st floor was “compromised” Tuesday morning, which led to the inspection and evacuation.
Earlier this year, the building had been the subject of complaints for “unsafe building demolition,” with debris falling from “high heights,” and a worker using a leaf blower to clear the building rooftop. Building inspectors could not verify the claims and did not issue violations.
City building records list Christopher Behan from the firm GACE Consulting Engineers as the project’s professional engineer. Behan and GACE did not respond to phone calls and an email seeking comment.
A total of 130 fire and EMS personnel were at the scene by about 10 a.m. and had evacuated workers from the building, according to the FDNY.
Anthoni Mera, an electrician who had been working on the 18th floor, told Gothamist he had never seen anything else that made him feel unsafe at the construction site.
“Thank God we’re fine; that nothing bad happened,” he said in Spanish. “We have to be grateful for that, thank God we’re alive, we’re all good, there were no injuries.”
Phil Corso contributed reporting.
This is a developing story and has been updated with new details.