Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other city officials said a Midtown building remains unstable Tuesday afternoon following evacuation orders for multiple buildings in the area.
The FDNY responded to 235 E. 42nd St., between Second and Third avenues, just before 8 a.m. after receiving reports of bricks falling from the 37-story building, which is under construction.
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other city officials said a Midtown building remains unstable Tuesday afternoon following evacuation orders for multiple buildings in the area
The FDNY responded to 235 E. 42nd St., between Second and Third avenues, just before 8 a.m. after receiving reports of bricks falling from the 37-story building, which is under construction
The city has implemented a “frozen zone” from First to Third avenues along 40th to 45th streets, closing the area to pedestrians and traffic out of safety precautions
No injuries have been reported in connection with the incident and all construction crews have been accounted for, officials said
The city has implemented a “frozen zone” from First to Third avenues along 40th to 45th streets, closing the area to pedestrians and traffic out of safety precautions.
As a precaution, officials evacuated the building along with neighboring buildings at 225 E. 43rd St., 221 E. 43rd St., 815 Second Ave., 212 E. 43rd St., 211 E. 43rd St. and 210 E. 43rd St. One of the buildings is a school with around 400 students present, according to Mamdani.
No injuries have been reported in connection with the incident and all construction crews have been accounted for, officials said.
Firefighters said they determined bricks fell after two columns inside the building “buckled,” causing “sagging” between the 21st and 26th floors.
The Department of Buildings said inspectors observed that a steel beam had been compromised on the 21st floor.
Mamdani said that when more crews arrived on scene, they witnessed additional movement in one of the compromised columns.
“First responders and structural engineers are working closely with the project engineer to develop plans to shore up the impacted floor. If the floor is deemed to be secure, engineers will enter and begin shoring up the building,” Mamdani said.
Around 4:15 p.m., Leila Bozorg, NYC deputy mayor for housing and planning, said in an interview with NY1 that the building hasn’t moved in the past few hours.
At around 4:45 p.m., city officials said the team sent in had completed its initial assessments and said there had been no additional movement of the damaged columns.
While regular monitoring of the damaged sections is ongoing, city officials said the contractors on site have been approved to move forward with installing emergency shoring to stabilize the building.
Additional stabilization work will be done throughout the evening and coming days, officials said.
The property, the former Pfizer headquarters, is an active construction site where an existing commercial office building is being converted into residential apartments.
“It’s a conversion of an office building into a residential property, and with that comes code changes and structural requirements, all of which have gone through a plan review, and now we’re examining what’s happened now and we’ll check it again, DOB Commisioner Ahmed Tigani said.