Workers Shore up Building on East 42nd Street after Steel Beams Buckled

Steel beams that buckled on July 7 in the former Pfizer HQ that is being converted into a residential housing complex triggered collapse fears and forced the evacuation of nine buildings and the shutdown of a dozen city blocks.

The DOB said that as of Friday, July 10, temporary shoring has been installed from the ninth floor to the top floor of the 37 story building which is in the process of converting office space into 1,500 residential apartments and is the largest commercial-to-residential conversion underway in the city.

As the operation continues, East 42nd Street in front of the building has been reopened between Second and Third Avenues as of July 9 but 43rd Street near the back of the building which was closest to the damaged beams and sagging floors remained closed.

And full vacate orders remained in effect on July 10 for the former Pfizer HQ at 235 E. 42nd St. as well nearby buildings that includes an Episcopal Church at 815 Second Ave.; the Hampton Inn Grand Central at 231 E, 43rd St. the Kennedy International School at 225 E. 43rd which was running a summer camp for 400 students in grades K-5; and a partial vacate order effecting the Japanese Restaurant Yakiniku Toraji but not the United Nations offices in the same building at 217 E. 43rd St.

The DOB said that as of July 8, “emergency shoring has been installed from the 18th through 23rd floor, including structural steel shoring columns on the 21st and 22nd floors, and light duty shoring posts on floors 18, 19, 20 and 23.”

The DOB said on July 10 that there had been no new movement detected in the building since the initial day on July 7, although movement was detected for several hours the first day which raised the fear of a building collapse.

Traffic, including city buses were being rerouted as the area between First and Third Avenues was blocked off, as were the East Side streets between 40th and 45th Streets on the first day. By July 8, the blocked-off zone had retreated to Second Avenue. By July 9, pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic was allowed in the front of the building on East 42nd Street but East 43rd Street between Second and Third Avenues was still blocked since that was the side of the building where the steel beams buckled and the floors sagged.

The drama began unfolding just before 8:00 a.m. on July 7th, when the FDNY received a call regarding structural issues at the active construction site at 235 East 42nd Street a 1970s era building that was once the HQ of phramcuetical giant Pfizer, sitting directly across from the original Daily News Building and the current home of WPIX, and not far from Grand Central and the United Nations.

Based on video evidence and confirmation by FDNY and the mayor, the structure’s compromise is located on the 21st floor, where two structural columns near the northwest corner of the tower had twisted and bent under the 11-story addition made to the top of the 37 story building. This failure led to cracked, sagging floors and buckling metal beams.

“It’s not supposed to happen; columns are not supposed to bend like that,” said Kassey Diaz, a construction worker who was working on the building's conversion at the time, remarked to Straus News.

Many residents and visitors staying in hotels during the day tired to negotiate with the NYPD to access the blocked-off roads, but all were turned away. At 7:30 p.m., residents in a building on 44th Street were allowed to return to their building after being told it was safe.

Around 3:30 p.m. on July 7, the deputy mayor Leila Bozorg spoke to the press just outside the barricades, sharing that a team of six surveyors had entered the building, taking the elevator to the 17th floor, beginning an “exhaustive investigation,” assessing each floor to finalize plans to reinforce the damaged floors.

“The building has not moved for several hours,” said Bozorg, even with the crew of surveyors inside and walking around, pointing out that it was encouraging. Bozorg also mentioned that she was grateful for the cooperation of residents within a six-block radius. “ I really appreciated everyone’s patience. I want to say thank you to all the folks that work and live in this area for staying away so we can keep everybody safe.”

Andrew Rudansy, a spokesman for the D.O.B., shared that May 15th was the last time city inspectors were in the building. “Our inspectors did not find any unsafe or illegal conditions during these site visits,” he said.

The building in the Grand Central Business District was sold for $375 million in 2018 as Pfizer moved its HQ to Hudson Yards.

The conversion from an office tower to a mixed-use commercial and residential tower was one of the flagship conversions in the city as officials wrestle with an affordable housing crisis. City Council’s “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” bill, which was passed last year and supported by then Mayor Eric Adams, promoted office-to-residential projects such as this one. But calls for tougher oversight are sure to follow.

David Werner, the CEO of MetroLoft, the developer in charge of the largest commercial-to-residential conversion in the city, said in a statement: “First and foremost, we want to thank the FDNY, NYPD, and DOB for their quick response...We’re thankful there were no injuries, and as the DOB clarified, no debris fell from the building. 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.”

But the blowback is already gathering steam, fueled in part because the biggest residential conversion project underway in the city is being built largely by non-union contractors. Indeed, by the morning of July 8, a truck commissioned by the Carpenters Union had pulled up to the intersection at East 43rd Street and Second Ave., two blocks from the stricken building, with the words in red: “Crime Scene.” Later in the morning, the sign was changed to read: “Shame on Metro Loft,” the developer behind the project.

Anthony Williamson, business agent and executive board member of of Local 79 of the Laborers’ International Union also raised the non-union aspect. “This is not typical of construction in New York City,” he said. “This is the contractor cutting corners. This is corporate greed. This is profit over people. It never would have happened if the developer used skilled craft people.”

At a press conference the day after the near disaster, Mamdani said he still supports the relaxed regulations under the City Council’s “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” to promote office-to-residential projects such as this one.

“Yes, I do continue to consider the conversion of office space into residential space as part of our answer to the housing crisis. I also consider that we have to do so safely and in a way that is fully accountable. And so as soon as we answer the emergency questions around safety in this moment, we are going to be conducting a full investigation as to how we got to this point.”