Unstable building on East 42nd Street forces evacuations in Midtown Manhattan

Crews appear to have made progress shoring up an unstable building under construction in Midtown Manhattan that forced evacuations and street closures earlier Tuesday.

At a late-night news conference, the Department of Buildings said the situation at 235 E. 42nd St., had improved.

“We are not only at the place where emergency struts or jacks are in place to hold up and stabilize where the weak points are, but they are also installing new steel as another emergency intervention,” DOB Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said. “As we get to spend more time in the space and understand the source of the issue, we can figure out with the contractor and their licensed professional what’s the long-term, what’s the long-term solution.”   

More than 100 fire and EMS personnel responded to reports of bricks falling from the 37-story building just before 8 a.m. 

When the FDNY arrived on the scene, firefighters found buckling and sagging floor conditions. Department of Buildings officials said when they arrived, they didn’t see falling debris but found structural damage.

No injuries were reported, and all workers were accounted for, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

Video from inside the building shows two columns buckled on the 21st floor. Officials said floors were sagging between the 21st and the 26th floors. 

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Mamdani said there has been “additional movement in one of the compromised columns.”

Later, after several hours of the building not showing any further movement, emergency crews went back inside, going floor to floor. 

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

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said her team is in close contact with New York City officials and is prepared to provide any assistance needed. 

Several neighboring buildings allowed to repopulate

Several nearby buildings that are home to more than 100 businesses in the area were initially evacuated, but many were given the green light to repopulate late Tuesday night.

The following buildings remain under an emergency evacuation order and as of 10 p.m. could not be occupied:

• 815 2nd Ave.
• 235 E. 43rd St.
• 231 E. 43rd St.
• 225 E. 43rd St.
• 217 E. 43rd St. (partial evacuation of the building — just the restaurant on the ground floor)

Officials continue to assess conditions and will provide updates on reentry to the remaining buildings as soon as it is safe to do so.

On 42nd and 43rd streets, between Second and Third avenues, all vehicular traffic is restricted. If you live or work in the areas on 42nd and 43rd, and not in one of the buildings under a vacate order, you will be able to access the area, New York City officials said.

Otherwise, all traffic and pedestrian restrictions have been lifted as of 10 p.m.

Officials used FDNY drone footage to examine the building. 

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

Esposito said the way in which the building is constructed likely would prevent it from a total collapse.

“High beams are bending like cigarettes” 

A representative from the Steamfitters Union said they saw cracked windows, bent beams and concrete falling from the roof. 

“They were up working on the floor, and somebody saw that the concrete was coming down, the beams started bending, the windows started buzzing,” union spokesperson Cliff Johnsen said. 

Johnsen said the developer wanted to add 16 stories. He said not enough steel was being added to the building. 

“They obviously didn’t add the right amount of steel. The north side of that building is crumbling, the high beams are bending like cigarettes in there, which is super dangerous,” Johnsen said. “Somebody saw that concrete was coming down.”

He blamed the developer for the incident.

“They chose profit over safety and put my members and every construction worker over here in general,” Johnsen said. 

The law does not require construction work sites to use union labor. 

“They should have used the New York City Union ironworkers to begin with, and I guarantee you you wouldn’t have had this problem,” Johnsen said. 

“First and foremost, we want to thank the FDNY, NYPD, and DOB for their quick response. The safety of everyone at and surrounding the building is our number one priority. 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,” developer Metro Loft said in a statement.

Multiple reports of debris falling

This is not the first time the city has responded to reports of things falling from this construction site.

Inspectors issued a $5,000 fine to the contractor, 235 GC LLC, in July 2025 after the buildings department said a piece of window glass from the eighth floor landed on a sidewalk shed.

In August 2025, city records show a metal panel fell from the 33rd floor and landed on the sidewalk. The city issued a $10,000 penalty for that and a temporary stop-work order for the entire site.

The contractor has racked up a total of seven violations and tens of thousands in fines over the last year.

Office to residential conversion

The building is the former Pfizer headquarters, but it is being converted to 1,600 luxury rental apartments. 

The project has been billed by developers as New York City’s largest office-to-residential conversion ever. 

The former Pfizer headquarters is two connected buildings and would become a massive residential complex. New floors are being added to one of the buildings. The 37-story 235 E. 42nd St., is being redesigned. 

Construction accident attorney Chris Gorayeb says the standard process is the owner hires a general contractor, the contractor hires an architect who works with engineers to get a plan approved by the Department of Buildings. 

“There’s going to be extensive litigation to determine exactly who dropped the ball and who was ultimately responsible for what is going to a very expensive fix,” Gorayeb said. 

Each office-to-resident conversion presents its own challenges. The one underway at 325 E. 42nd St., underwent an extensive two-year review by the city. 

Now investigators will have to determine whether the failure was in the design, the construction, or somewhere in between. 

Getting from the East Side to the West Side

Experts say drivers should consider the impacted area of Midtown similar to the United Nations General Assembly and avoid it.

“This will likely affect the morning rush hour because 42nd Street will likely remain closed with the repairs going on, even if they get the building stable,” said “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, an engineer and former New York City traffic commissioner.

Schwartz said alternate routes to the West Side include the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, and the Williamsburg Bridge, or avoiding the East Side altogether and using the West Side Highway.