Structural support columns on the 21st floor of a 37-story former Pfizer headquarters at 235 E. 42nd Street began buckling around 8 a.m. Tuesday, drawing more than 100 fire and emergency medical personnel to evacuate the unoccupied building and seven neighboring structures across two blocks of Midtown Manhattan near Grand Central Terminal.
The failure struck one of the city's largest active construction sites, a conversion of the tower into 1,500 luxury rental apartments that developers have billed as New York's biggest office-to-residential project. No injuries were reported, and every worker was accounted for, but the incident shut vehicular traffic on 42nd and 43rd streets between Second and Third avenues and kept five buildings under emergency evacuation orders into Tuesday night.
What crews found
Firefighters arriving at the scene discovered what the Fire Department described as "buckling and sagging floor conditions," with columns deforming on the 21st floor and the structure sagging between the 21st and 26th floors. Construction workers had raised the initial alarm after noticing the columns bending; raw video recorded by a worker showed crumbling steel beams. The Department of Buildings, which maintains an active construction permit at the site, said emergency struts and new steel were being installed to shore up the affected floors.
FDNY Chief John Esposito said the tower had not stopped shifting. "The building has continued to move since we have been on the scene," Esposito said. Cliff Johnsen, a Steamfitters Union spokesperson, said "High beams are bending like cigarettes in there."
The site
The tower, formerly Pfizer's global headquarters, is being converted into 1,500 luxury rental apartments, according to NBC News; CBS News put the figure at 1,600. The developer's contractor, 235 GC LLC, has accumulated seven violations from the Department of Buildings over the past year, including a $5,000 fine in July 2025 and a $10,000 fine in August 2025.
City response
Ahmed Tigani, the city's buildings commissioner, said late Tuesday that "I can say right now the building is stable," adding that authorities were "confident in the emergency plan" as engineers prepared to reinforce the affected floor once materials arrived. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the episode "an extremely serious situation" and praised first responders and residents for their composure.
Buildings kept under emergency evacuation orders included 815 Second Ave., 235 E. 43rd St., 231 E. 43rd St., 225 E. 43rd St. and a partial evacuation at 217 E. 43rd St. By early evening, residents at 222 East 44th Street were cleared to return as authorities evaluated the other evacuated properties for repopulation.
The developer and 235 GC LLC had not publicly addressed the sequence of events by press time.
Engineers were expected to enter the 21st floor to reinforce the buckled columns once materials arrived Wednesday, with the Department of Buildings continuing to assess evacuated neighbors for return.