A 37-story high-rise under construction in Midtown Manhattan remains unstable after two structural columns gave way and five floors pancaked Tuesday morning, prompting a major emergency response and evacuations across the neighborhood.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters at a press conference that “the building remains unstable,” warning that engineers had observed additional movement in one of the compromised columns since first responders arrived. “This is an extremely serious situation,” he said.
The New York City Fire Department received the initial call at 7:57 a.m. reporting bricks falling from the building at 235 East 42nd Street, the former global headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The structure is being converted into a residential development under a permitted construction project, according to the city’s Department of Buildings.
FDNY officials said floors 21 through 26 caved in, with multiple cracks and sagging floors reported throughout the building. Second Avenue and East 42nd Street remain closed to traffic, and police tape has been placed on East 43rd Street as crews work to secure the area. A school with roughly 400 students was evacuated, along with several nearby tall buildings.
No injuries have been reported among workers or civilians, and all construction personnel have been accounted for, Mamdani said. But the mayor stressed that structural engineers are collaborating with the project engineer to develop a plan to shore up the impacted floors.
Cliff Johnson of Steamfitters Local 638, who was inside the building when the failure began, blamed the general contractor for opting to go non-union. “They did not shore up the job correctly,” Johnson said. “The beams started crumbling, the floors started crumbling, and they might have to evacuate the other side.” He described the project as a total renovation, with crews gutting the existing 33 stories and planning to add 16 more floors.
The incident caused major delays for commuters, as street closures snarled traffic in the area. One worker told WPIX that his family had called him in panic, fearing the building had collapsed entirely.
This latest construction emergency comes as the Trump administration pushes for expanded domestic energy and infrastructure projects, including a $17.5 billion investment in 10 new nuclear plants, which has revived debate about workplace safety standards in large-scale construction. Meanwhile, the Labor Department's new rule on union financial disclosures has sparked legal battles with organized labor, highlighting tensions over contractor practices on major projects.
City officials have not released a timeline for when the building will be stabilized or when the surrounding streets will reopen. The Department of Buildings is leading the investigation into the cause of the collapse.
