Crews worked overnight to shore up a massive, under-construction apartment building in Manhattan after its columns buckled and floors sagged, prompting widespread evacuations and street closures over concerns about a potential collapse. The building, a former headquarters for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, has been stabilized, according to city officials.
Some surrounding buildings remained under evacuation orders, and several midtown streets were still closed on Wednesday as work continued at the site, located near the Grand Central transit hub and the Chrysler Building. "The two most important things right now is making it stable and safe for the people who are working inside, for the people who are nearby," said Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of the city's Department of Buildings, late Tuesday.
Authorities responded to emergency calls early Tuesday and discovered two damaged support beams and sagging floors on the building's 21st floor. On-site contractors were later allowed to reenter the building to conduct emergency repairs after city officials completed a floor-by-floor inspection. The building was unoccupied except for the construction workers.
The project aims to be the largest office-to-residential conversion in the city's history, intending to create approximately 1,600 housing units. The plans involve transforming two office buildings by adding more than a dozen stories atop one tower and redesigning another. MetroLoft, the project developer, stated that the building is not at risk of collapse and that no debris fell from the structure. Nathan Berman, the firm's founder, acknowledged that the added weight from widening the top roughly 15 floors of the building likely caused the structural damage.