The developer overseeing the conversion of a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper into apartments has characterized the buckling of support beams as a "freak accident," while asserting the building was never in danger of collapse.
Nine neighboring buildings were evacuated on Tuesday after construction workers discovered the support columns on the 21st floor of the 37-story building, formerly the Pfizer headquarters, had begun to buckle.
Nathan Berman, the developer, told The Real Deal that "something occurred with these two specific columns that either were not reinforced or were not reinforced sufficiently, and they gave way." He downplayed reports of an impending collapse, stating they had been "blown a little bit out of proportion."
Berman also refuted claims that insufficient steel had been used to support the renovations' added weight. "Total nonsense. This was well designed and approved by structural engineers," he said.
He described the issue as "fixable" and attributed the column damage to the added weight during construction. "It’s very simple. You add more load to something that can’t support it, it’ll give way, and that’s what happened, and now it just needs to be fixed," Berman stated.
