Manhattan building sparks evacuations after two structural columns buckle

A high-rise building in Manhattan was deemed unstable on Tuesday after authorities determined that support columns buckled, spurring evacuation of nearby buildings, according to officials and reports.

Officials said they also found “structural issues” on the 21st floor of the former Pfizer pharmaceutical building, which is being converted into residential apartments. “Two structural columns buckled, and there were multiple cracks and sagging floors,” the fire department said on X.

Workers were expected to begin stabilizing the building on Tuesday evening. According to New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office, a team went through each floor and did not detect any additional movement of the support columns, allowing the on-site contractors to begin the emergency repair work.

The temporary measures are meant to stabilize the building and are expected to stretch into the coming days, impacting a busy corridor of midtown near the famed Grand Central Terminal, which is a hub for metro area commuters and residents as well as tourists.

Officials said they received reports of a “structural issue at an active construction site” on East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues, before 8am.

The fire department also posted a photo of a dramatically bent beam on its X account.

“It’s a very serious situation because the box beams – the steel beams – have started to bend and deflect from the weight,” John Esposito, the fire department chief, said. “We evacuated the building and started evacuations of surrounding buildings.”

Fire department drones have been deployed to provide “technical information and visuals” while officials continue assessing the building.

Authorities said efforts to stabilize the site will extend “into the night”, ABC 7 reported.

“The building remains unstable,” Mamdani, said on Tuesday afternoon, per ABC 7. “This is an extremely serious situation.”

Esposito, the fire chief, said at a press conference that if the building fell, such a collapse would “not be a total collapse, it would be more of a localized collapse”, per ABC 7. He said it was because this building was made of steel, NBC News said.

People who work nearby are unsure when they will be able to return to their offices, with estimates ranging from several days to two weeks, CNN said.

MetroLoft, which is one of the two companies helming the construction, thanked city officials for their “quick response”.

“The safety of everyone at and surrounding the building is our number one priority,” MetroLoft said in a statement, according to Pix 11. “We’re thankful there were no injuries, and as the DOB clarified, no debris fell from the building. We want to confirm that the affected area is a small section of one of the two buildings on this site. As the FDNY spokesperson noted, the entire building itself is not at risk of collapse.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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