Two support columns on the 21st floor of a 37‑story tower under construction near Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan began to buckle Tuesday morning, destabilizing several upper floors and triggering a rapid evacuation of the building and surrounding blocks, officials told Newsweek.
By late afternoon, city officials said the situation inside the former Pfizer headquarters had begun to stabilize, noting that inspections showed the damaged columns had not shifted and that emergency shoring work would continue into the evening and take several days, according to PIX11 reporter Henry Rosoff.
The alarm was first raised just before 8 a.m. ET, when debris was reported falling from 235 East 42nd Street, now being converted into a luxury residential complex expected to hold between 1,500 and 1,600 apartments.
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The project, led by Metro Loft and David Werner with Gensler as architect, is considered the largest office‑to‑residential conversion in U.S. history.
FDNY: Buckling Columns, Sagging Floors and Rescue Response
FDNY told Newsweek that units arrived minutes after the initial call and found two columns buckled on the 21st and 22nd floors, with floors sagging between the 21st and 26th floors. A safety manager also reported a compromised steel beam on the 21st floor, according to Buildings Department records.
The department launched a major technical rescue, deploying about 40 units and 130 Fire and EMS personnel. FDNY Chief John Esposito said steel beams inside the building had begun to “bend and deflect” and confirmed that all workers were accounted for and no injuries had been reported.
DOB engineers are using FDNY drone footage to monitor movement inside the structure, which officials say has continued to shift throughout the day.
Construction workers were immediately ordered out, and officials evacuated nine nearby buildings, including 225 East 43rd Street, 221 East 43rd Street, 815 Second Avenue, 212 East 43rd Street, 211 East 43rd Street, 235 East 42nd Street, and 210 East 43rd Street.
Students at the Kennedy International School on East 43rd Street were also evacuated; a school administrator confirmed roughly 400 children were relocated.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the building “remains unstable” and that officials had observed additional movement in one of the compromised columns. He announced a “frozen zone” spanning 40th to 45th Streets between First and Third Avenues, urging New Yorkers to avoid the area.
Safety Manager Reported Compromised Steel Beam
Mamdani said most of East 42nd and East 43rd Streets between First and Third Avenues were shut down to pedestrians and vehicles.
A Newsweek reporter at the scene observed widespread confusion among workers and bystanders, noting that nothing appeared to be falling or breaking at the time even as evacuations continued and access was fully restricted.
Metro Loft said it was aware of the structural issues and was working with the Department of Buildings to determine “the full scope of the situation.”
A union representative at the scene described the incident as “highly unusual” and claimed it may have stemmed from insufficient steel to support added floors—a claim city officials have not confirmed.
NewsNation Evacuated Amid Midtown Collapse
The structural emergency also forced NewsNation’s New York Bureau to evacuate its offices inside the affected building, the network confirmed. NewsNation said it immediately activated contingency plans to keep its 24‑hour live news coverage uninterrupted — noting that its newsroom is often reporting from the center of major breaking news events, and “this time, we are literally in the center of it.”
National Correspondent Jessica Kartalija, reporting live from the scene, described the evacuation as swift and coordinated. According to NewsNation, Kartalija told viewers:
“We had just entered the building… everyone was kind of wondering why we hadn’t been evacuated just yet, and then next thing we knew, they made an announcement over the loudspeaker that everyone needed to get out of the building, but it was all a very coordinated process. Everyone made their way safely out… we’re just watching that building, hoping that they can shore that building up and make sure that it’s safe for the time being.”
Kartalija also showed viewers how NewsNation and its sister station WPIX‑TV, which operates on another floor of the building, had relocated their broadcast operations to the street. NewsNation said WPIX moved its entire studio crew — cameras, lighting, anchor teams — outside to continue delivering local coverage as the situation unfolded.
“They have had to shift everything out of here because we don’t know at what point we will be allowed back into the station,” Kartalija reported, noting that both networks were broadcasting from makeshift setups amid widespread street closures. She added that traffic around Third Avenue and Second Avenue had become “an absolute parking lot,” with buses rerouted and officials urging people to take the subway if possible.
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What to Know About the Former Pfizer Headquarters
The tower at 235 East 42nd Street is part of a two‑building complex originally constructed in the 1970s for Pfizer’s global headquarters. Today, it is undergoing one of the most ambitious office‑to‑residential conversions ever attempted in New York City — a process developers and city officials have increasingly promoted as a way to address the city’s housing shortage.
The project spans both 235 East 42nd Street and the adjacent 219 East 42nd Street, where developers are adding 19 new stories atop the original 10‑story structure. Once complete, the combined redevelopment is expected to deliver 1,602 apartments, including 400 designated as affordable units, making it the largest conversion of its kind in city history, according to Gensler, the architectural firm overseeing the redesign.
Office‑to‑residential conversions are notoriously complex. Older office towers often have floor plates, ceiling heights, plumbing layouts, and structural spacing that differ significantly from those of residential buildings. A 2023 Moody’s Analytics study found that only about 3 percent of New York’s office buildings are viable candidates for conversion. The East 42nd Street project had already undergone what city officials described as an “extensive, exhaustive review” before construction began.
The broader push for conversions accelerated after the pandemic left large portions of Manhattan’s office stock underused. State and city incentives — including tax exemptions — helped spur interest, and by early 2025, the comptroller’s office had identified 44 completed, ongoing, or potential conversions across the city. Advocates say the model can reduce carbon emissions by reusing existing structures; a 2023 report from Arup estimated that converting more than 200 office buildings nationwide could cut emissions by over 50 percent compared with new construction.
Metro Loft, which is developing the project with David Werner Real Estate, has completed more than a dozen conversions across New York, including the million‑square‑foot redevelopment at 25 Water Street in the Financial District. But the East 42nd Street project marks the company’s first major undertaking in Midtown — a shift founder Nathan Berman has described as a way to “reinvigorate” office‑heavy neighborhoods by bringing in thousands of new residents.
DOB Violations and New Complaint Filed
The Department of Buildings filed a new complaint Tuesday accusing the developers of conducting excavation beyond or contrary to approved plans. The building has 22 violations dating back to 2020, including elevator inspection failures, with 13 still active and $39,000 in penalties owed.
Officials said emergency beams and columns were being brought to the site to help shore up the weakened structure. Mamdani stressed that the situation is evolving rapidly: “Every few minutes we are looking at a new assessment of the structure and the possibilities and options in front of us.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant and Sam Wilson.