A high-rise under construction in Midtown Manhattan was evacuated Tuesday morning after two structural columns buckled and several floors began sagging, prompting a large-scale emergency response during the morning rush hour, according to The New York Times.
Shortly before 8 a.m., emergency officials were contacted about bricks dropping near 235 East 42nd Street, the site of Pfizer $PFE's onetime headquarters, now in the midst of a residential conversion. According to CBS News, inspectors found that a pair of columns on the 21st floor had given way, with sagging detected in the floors spanning up through the 26th level. More than 100 fire and emergency personnel responded to the scene.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference that nine nearby buildings had been evacuated as a precaution, along with a school housing roughly 400 children, according to CNN. Streets on most of 42nd and 43rd Streets between First and Third Avenues were closed to pedestrians and vehicles. No injuries were reported.
Cliff Johnsen, a business agent for Steamfitters Local 638, described the scene to CBS News: crew members had been working on the floor when they noticed concrete dropping from above and the surrounding beams starting to give way. "The north side of that building is crumbling," he said. "I-beams are bending like cigarettes in there." In Johnsen's view, the builders had failed to incorporate adequate steel to bear the load of the new floors being added — an assertion that remained unverified, as The Times noted that no official cause had been determined.
In a statement cited by The Wall Street Journal, Metro Loft acknowledged the structural issues at the site and said it had engaged the city's Department of Buildings to assess the extent of the damage.
The project involves converting two office towers originally built in the 1970s into a complex with more than 1,600 apartments, according to The Times. Completion is scheduled for 2027. CBS News reported that 235 GC LLC, the project's general contractor, had faced seven violations and accrued tens of thousands of dollars in penalties in the preceding year; city records showed every one of those violations had been closed out before Tuesday.
Update, July 8, 2026: Crews worked through the night to stabilize the building, and some evacuations of nearby buildings have since been lifted, allowing residents to return to their homes. Some roads in the area remain closed. (per CNN)