Midtown high-rise's safety record under scrutiny after buckling columns discovered
The DOB has investigated numerous complaints, violations associated with the building
MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- The safety record of a construction company is under heavy scrutiny after a high-rise building in Midtown Manhattan was deemed to be structurally unstable after a buckling column was discovered on Tuesday.
The building is part of the largest office to apartment conversion project in New York City history, but the question is, was it done properly, and who is to blame?
A steel beam was seen buckling on the 21st floor, where crews were turning old offices into apartments, straining to hold the weight above it.
From the blueprints, it shows they added an additional four floors of apartment space to the top of the building recently.
It's not clear yet if that's what's causing it to buckle.
Eyewitness News spoke with a civil engineer from NYU about the project.
"What happened here is either an increase in the load, or a redistribution of the load surrounding the column which carried more load or it was a built-in defect that no one was aware of," said Magued Iskander of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
The city issued a complaint on Tuesday for excavation work done to the foundation. It alleges that it was not approved or permitted.
Before Tuesday, the 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.
"It has gone through an extensive exhaustive review with the DOB over the past two years. What is happening now is an investigation into what is the cause. Why the undermining happened," said Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani.
Once the building is stabilized, there's hope for a fix, but it won't be easy.
"The loads have to be transferred safely to the ground and new members have to be put into place," Iskander said. "These columns must be replaced."
He also said that any complaint made about a construction project should be taken seriously, but they happen on every construction project, and it's not out of the ordinary.
RELATED | Former DOB commissioner on unstable high-rise building
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