Emergency work on the former Pfizer headquarters in Manhattan, which became unstable earlier this week, is ongoing on Thursday, the city Department of Buildings said.
“Temporary shoring has been installed on floors 9 to the roof. Construction crews are now installing steel columns as a temporary stabilizing measure on multiple floors, and reinforcing several existing structural columns in the building.” the DOB wrote in a statement.
What You Need To Know
Emergency work on the former Pfizer headquarters in Manhattan, which became unstable earlier this week, is ongoing on Thursday, the city Department of Buildings said
Vacate orders are still in effect for some buildings in the area, including 815 Second Ave., 235 East 43 St., 231 East 43 St. and 225 East 43 St.
There is a partial vacate order in place for the restaurant inside 217 East 43 St., and 43rd Street between Second and Third avenues is still closed
Vacate orders are still in effect for some buildings in the area, including 815 Second Ave., 235 East 43 St., 231 East 43 St. and 225 East 43 St.
There is a partial vacate order in place for the restaurant inside 217 East 43 St., and 43rd Street between Second and Third avenues is still closed.
MetroLoft, the developer of the property, said it will fully rebuild the damaged portion of the building.
In a statement, the developer added, “This is a localized situation affecting less than 30 apartments out of over 1,600. At no time was the building, or any portion of it, at risk of collapse.”
On Thursday, Steamfitters Local 638, which has some members working in the building, claimed the developer cut corners and put New Yorkers and future building residents at risk.
The union said the majority of workers are non-union, and said a handful are union members doing work on the building’s fire sprinkler system.
Steamfitters Local 638 claimed the building was being constructed by a workforce that wasn’t qualified, trained or given the proper safety training to be on the job. It’s urging the city to responsibly figure out the next steps for the structure after the extra reinforcement work is done to shore up the building.
“When you have steel columns bending in half, the last time that the city of New York saw that was 9/11. The last time that the FDNY saw that was 9/11. This is irresponsible contracting. There’s plenty of money to go around for the developers and the contractors here. What we want you to do is, we want you to make your money, do what you do, build your business, and that’s great. We want you to take your profits and we want you to put it into a quality workforce, which is a union workforce,” said Cliff Johnsen, a business agent with the union.
NY1 reached out to MetroLoft and the DOB for statements on the accusations made by the union, and have not received a response to the specific claims. There is a partial stop work order in place so that no non-emergency work can happen.
MetroLoft is also facing a $376 million lawsuit that includes allegations ranging from structural flaws, engineering flaws and building code violations at a residential building in TriBeCa. The company has moved to have the lawsuit dismissed several times without success.