Former Pfizer HQ deemed stable after collapse scare on Manhattan's East Side
MIDTOWN EAST, Manhattan (WABC) -- A 37-story high-rise on Manhattan's East Side that sparked fears of a possible collapse has been stabilized, according to city officials, allowing most evacuated residents to return home.
The incident unfolded Tuesday morning when workers inside the former Pfizer headquarters, which is being converted into residential housing, discovered buckled columns and bending steel box beams on the building's 21st floor. Emergency crews rushed to the scene amid concerns the structure could fail.
The Department of Buildings said Wednesday that the building is stable as crews continue reinforcing the damaged supports and investigating what caused the structural issues.
Nine nearby buildings were evacuated as a precaution, and surrounding streets were shut down while engineers assessed the risk and worked to secure the site.
According to MetroLoft, the developer overseeing the conversion project, the columns likely buckled under the added weight of newly expanded upper floors. The company said part of the floor sagged by about four inches but maintained that the building was never in danger of collapsing.
"We have columns that could not hold the weight that it was holding before," NYC Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo said.
Crews are installing metal supports and galvanized steel to replace the compromised columns and carry the load previously supported by the damaged structure.
Officials said the investigation remains ongoing as engineers determine the root cause of the failure and develop a long-term repair plan.
The restricted zone around the building has been significantly reduced. By Wednesday morning, closures were limited to a two-block stretch around East 42nd and East 43rd streets between Second and Third avenues.
The remaining frozen zone includes a hotel and a private school operating a summer camp for about 400 children. Most residents who were forced to evacuate Tuesday have since been cleared to return to their homes.
Investigation into building's history of complaints and violations
The 37-story commercial building is currently undergoing renovations to convert it into a residential building, according to the DOB. It is one of the largest office-to-apartment conversion projects in city history, officials said.
Before Tuesday, the unstable building received two dozen other complaints since last year, ranging from a worker blowing material off of the roof with a leaf blower, to a worker falling from a ladder that wasn't on a flat surface, to a large item falling through five floors and almost hitting someone.
In almost all the of the cases, the building did not receive a formal violation because inspectors didn't observe anything wrong when they got to the construction site.
Metro Loft, the developer of the conversion project, said in a statement that it is working with the Department of Buildings as it investigates the situation.
"The safety of our workers and the public has always been, and remains, our top priority," the developer said.
The cause of the instability will be determined after the emergency trusses are in place, according to the buildings commissioner.
"There is an active investigation underway about what brought us to this point - I think our focus right now is making sure this site is safe, this building is safe, this neighborhood is safe," Mayor Mamdani said.
The mayor added that the investigation will continue because the city wants to make sure if anything was done incorrectly, that these actions are not ones that are repeated.
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