{"id":292992,"date":"2026-07-11T02:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/292992\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T02:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:51:07","slug":"new-yorks-department-of-investigation-launches-inquiry-into-buckling-manhattan-high-rise-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/292992\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s Department of Investigation launches inquiry into buckling Manhattan high rise | National"},"content":{"rendered":"

(CNN) \u2014 The New York City Department of Investigation has opened an inquiry after a Manhattan high-rise\u2019s columns buckled earlier this week, forcing workers to flee and officials to evacuate neighboring buildings and close down roads, a spokesperson for the department told CNN.<\/p>\n

The developer behind the skyscraper \u2013 the former Pfizer headquarters<\/a> being converted into apartments \u2013 previously told CNN that faulty column supports carrying too much weight were to blame, and the building has since been stabilized.<\/p>\n

The company was adding 18,000 square feet to 15 upper floors of the building, and the additional load caused two columns to bend, sagging the floors \u2013 some as much as 4 inches, Nathan Berman, founder and managing principal of MetroLoft, told CNN.<\/p>\n

While the developer said no part of the building, located on East 42nd Street<\/a>, was ever at risk of collapsing, city officials on Tuesday described the building as unstable and established a formal \u201ccollapse zone\u201d around it.<\/p>\n

CNN has reached out to MetroLoft for comment on the inquiry into the incident.<\/p>\n

The columns bent \u201cessentially from not having been properly reinforced or having been missed in the reinforcement process,\u201d Berman said, noting they will determine the exact reason \u201cin due time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The buckled columns sit between the existing structure of the building and the new floors being constructed, city officials have said.<\/p>\n

A \u201cfull investigation\u201d into the structural failure at the former Pfizer building will help determine how the failure happened, what led to it and how similar incidents can be avoided in the future, the New York City Department of Buildings previously said.<\/p>\n

The probe will include reviews of construction documents, interviews with witnesses and a review of any available video and photo evidence from the site, among other things.<\/p>\n

The department also noted earlier this week that it has required the building\u2019s owner to hire a third-party engineer to conduct a forensic evaluation \u2014 a formal investigation to determine the cause of the structural failure.<\/p>\n

The New York City Department of Investigation is the city\u2019s independent watchdog agency, which investigates fraud, corruption, misconduct, municipal malfeasance, city employees, contractors, and individuals who do business with the city.<\/p>\n

When investigations uncover evidence of criminal activity, DOI routinely works with prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to pursue criminal charges in addition to administrative or civil actions.<\/p>\n

CNN has reached out to the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The investigation is likely to be complex. Large-scale construction projects in the city often involve multiple developers, general contractors, subcontractors, hundreds of workers and multiple entities with separate responsibilities \u2014 setting up a wide net for investigators to comb through as they collect evidence.<\/p>\n

The-CNN-Wire<\/p>\n

\u2122 & \u00a9 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

THE-CNN-WIRE \u2122 & \u00a9 2025 CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., A TIME WARNER COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Jeff Winter, Maria Aguilar Prieto, Rebekah Riess and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(CNN) \u2014 The New York City Department of Investigation has opened an inquiry after a Manhattan high-rise\u2019s columns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-292992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}