Compromised structural beams on the 21st floor of a Manhattan construction site caused several evacuations and road closures Tuesday, the New York City Department of Buildings confirmed to Construction Dive.
Two structural columns have buckled, multiple cracks have formed and floors have sagged, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a press conference with other city officials.
“The building remains unstable. Since arriving on-scene we have witnessed additional movement in one of the compromised columns,” Mamdani said.
Department of Buildings engineers are monitoring the structure — a commercial office to residential conversion project — with fire department drones, the mayor said. The city’s team will eventually seek to shore up the columns if the floor is deemed stable and safe enough to do so.
Dangers and concerns
Video shot by jobsite workers shows buckling supports at the project.
Joe DiPompeo, president of New Jersey civil engineering firm Structural Workshop, said he has driven past the East 42nd Street building on multiple occasions. After watching the posted videos of the interior, he called the failed beams “very concerning.” He also noted metal studs for interior walls were buckling as well.
“The only thing that really would cause them to buckle, because they're not load-bearing, is if the floor above comes down and loads them. I suspect the floor above dropped when those main columns buckled and buckled the studs, which is not good,” DiPompeo told Construction Dive.
Also the former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Structural Engineering Institute from 2020-2021, DiPompeo posited that the support columns probably failed first.
A number of factors could have caused the failure, he added.
For example, stacking construction materials in an area not designed for a heavy load, or if a crew diverged from the design plans and cut into a structural support, perhaps for electrical or plumbing work.
Fixing this problem is a major undertaking.
“Best case scenario is you get it shored, then you've addressed the problem temporarily,” DiPompeo said. “But if that floor above dropped a foot or two, which looks like what would've happened with the amount of movement and the columns and the studs, the top 10 stories of this building are now crooked.”
DiPompeo said he struggled to imagine how the building could be safe enough to shore up the columns from the inside, but considered crews potentially working from a large crane from the outside of the building.
“If this floor gave way, you got 10 stories coming down on top of 22,” DiPompeo said. “You certainly can see why they evacuated the building and the area and are taking it as seriously as they are.”
In the meantime, officials repeatedly stated they plan to monitor and shore up the building for further investigation, but would prioritize keeping people safe.
“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, ” said Fire Department of New York Chief John Esposito during Tuesday’s press conference.
All construction workers were accounted for after evacuation, Mamdani said.
Project details
The residential conversion — the former headquarters for Pfizer — is being developed by Metro Loft with 235 GC listed as general contractor, according to DOB documents shared with Construction Dive. Gensler is the project architect, and adaptive reuse firm Collaborative Construction Management lists the project on its website.
With a projected finish for 2027, the reuse project represents the largest office to residential conversion in New York City’s history, according to Collaborative Construction Management’s website. The 1.3 million square foot structure would create 1,600 luxury apartments, per plans from Metro Loft.
The building has two primary areas, NYC DOB Commissioner Ahmed Tigani told reporters Tuesday: one 37-story section, as well as one 22-story section with an 11-story addition above, which has topped out.
The DOB had previously responded to multiple safety concerns at the structure since May 2025, according to The City Reporter. Incidents ranged from falling debris to at least two worker injuries in November and December, per The City Reporter.
Adaptive reuse in the Big Apple
Turning offices into apartments has been on the rise in the Big Apple since the COVID-19 pandemic sent more employees to work from home. As of the first quarter of 2024, the city counted 44 completed, ongoing and potential conversions totaling 15.2 million gross square feet, according to a note from the city’s comptroller last year.
However, a structural concern such as the East 42nd street building is not unique to adaptive reuse projects, DiPompeo said. In fact, residential buildings often have more supports across a higher number of smaller rooms, meaning going from residential to office would pose more structural adaptations than the other way around, he said.
CCM, Gensler and Metro Loft did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment by the time of publication.
