Unstable Midtown high-rise prompts evacuations and street closures

A 37-story building under construction in Midtown Manhattan remained structurally unstable Tuesday after support columns buckled, forcing evacuations, shutting down streets near Grand Central Terminal and sending more than 100 fire and EMS personnel to the scene.

Officials said the emergency began just before 8 a.m. with reports of bricks falling from 235 East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues. When firefighters and Buildings Department officials arrived, they found no falling debris, but identified serious structural damage: two buckled columns on the 21st floor and sagging floors between the 21st and 26th floors.

At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said there had been “additional movement in one of the compromised columns” and that the building “remains unstable.”

“This is an extremely serious situation, and I am thankful to our first responders for quickly arriving at the site, and to New Yorkers for reacting calmly and with urgency,” Mamdani said.

No injuries were reported, and all workers were accounted for, officials said.

The Fire Department used drone footage to examine the building, and emergency crews later went back inside after several hours without further movement. NBC News reported that two sources briefed on the investigation said the building had not moved since noon. A team from the FDNY, the Department of Buildings and the building’s contractor entered to assess whether shoring work could begin, according to a city official familiar with the investigation cited by NBC News.

The Department of Buildings said structural engineers would begin shoring up the building with emergency trusses.

FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said the steel-frame construction reduced the risk of a total failure, but not the danger.

“It’s a very serious situation because the box beams—the steel beams—have started to bend and deflect from the weight,” Esposito said. “We evacuated the building and started evacuations of surrounding buildings. The building has continued to move since we have been on the scene.”

“For the way this building is constructed, it’s a steel frame building, so it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse,” he said. “But that remains our concern, that it’s moving.”

City officials evacuated the building and multiple nearby properties. CBS News reported that the affected buildings included addresses on East 42nd Street, East 43rd Street, Second Avenue and Third Avenue, and that more than 100 businesses were in the area. Mamdani said “a number of tall buildings” and a school with about 400 children were also evacuated. NBC News reported that seven neighboring buildings were evacuated.

New York City Emergency Management established a frozen zone from 40th to 45th streets between First and Third avenues, closing the area to pedestrians and vehicles. The FDNY also established a collapse zone. Officials urged New Yorkers to avoid the area.

Helder Pereira told NBC News that his office building was evacuated at 11:30 a.m. and that he and his coworkers walked down 32 flights of stairs. “‘I need to get out of here really quick because I don’t know if the neighboring buildings are collapsing or not,’” he recalled thinking. “It was a bit scary.”

A hotel worker in the area told CBS News: “We left everything in the locker room. I have my medication in there. My house key is there. And now everybody is stranded.”

A Steamfitters Union representative, Cliff Johnsen, said workers saw cracked windows, bent beams and concrete falling from the roof. “The north side of that building is crumbling, the high beams are bending like cigarettes in there, which is super dangerous,” he said. Johnsen blamed the developer, saying, “They chose profit over safety.”

Developer Metro Loft said safety was its top priority. “We’re thankful there were no injuries, and as the DOB clarified, no debris fell from the building,” the company said. “We want to confirm that the affected area is a small section of one of the two buildings on this site. As the FDNY spokesperson noted, the entire building itself is not at risk of collapse.”

The building is the former Pfizer headquarters and is being converted into luxury rental apartments. CBS News reported the project would create 1,600 units and has been billed by developers as New York City’s largest office-to-residential conversion. NBC News reported it is being converted into a 1,500-unit complex and has an active construction permit.

CBS News reported that city records show prior incidents at the site, including a $5,000 fine in July 2025 after window glass from the eighth floor landed on a sidewalk shed, and a $10,000 penalty and temporary stop-work order in August 2025 after a metal panel fell from the 33rd floor onto the sidewalk. The contractor, 235 GC LLC, has received seven violations and tens of thousands of dollars in fines over the past year, CBS News reported.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state was in close contact with city officials and “stands ready to provide any assistance needed.”