Mass evacuations ordered as buckling Manhattan high-rise remains unstable, mayor says

A high-rise apartment complex in Midtown Manhattan remains structurally unstable and is at risk of collapse after the building’s support columns started buckling on Tuesday morning, officials said. The area surrounding the 37-story building, situated near Grand Central Terminal, was evacuated after two structural support columns on its 21st floor began to buckle at around 8 a.m. local time. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other city officials addressed reporters nearby, saying that the building “remains unstable” as of Tuesday afternoon. The mayor added that “since we have been on site in the early morning, we have seen continued shift of the structure.” “This is an extremely serious situation, and I am thankful to our first responders for quickly arriving at the site, and to New Yorkers for reacting calmly and with urgency,” the mayor said. The city’s fire commissioner said that because the building is made of steel, there is only a possibility of a “localized collapse” versus a “total collapse.” Mamdani said that authorities were working “to develop plans to shore up the impacted floor. He said that if the floor is deemed to be secure, engineers will enter and begin shoring up the building as we await the arrival of materials that will stabilize the building.” “I want to be honest with New Yorkers that this is a fast-developing situation,” Mamdani said. “We are taking it minute by minute, and I appreciate our city workers who have been on the forefront of that.” The building has not moved since noon local time, according to two sources briefed on the investigation told NBC New York. A team of six people, comprised of the New York City Fire Department, the Department of Buildings and the building’s contractor, entered to assess if shoring efforts are safe to begin, according to a city official familiar with the investigation. The mayor said that the NYPD has temporarily closed off 40th to 45th streets between First and Third Avenue, a stone’s throw away from some of the city’s largest tourist attractions, including The New York Public Library, Bryant Park and Times Square. In addition to the building itself, seven neighboring buildings were evacuated — a growing number as the response escalated, Mamdani said. Helder Pereira’s office building was evacuated at 11:30 a.m. local time. He said he and his coworkers had to walk down 32 flights of steps to get out of the building. “‘I need to get out of here really quick because I don’t know if the neighboring buildings are collapsing or not,’” he recalled thinking. “It was a bit scary.” The mayor said that officials will be in touch with people living in the surrounding area “as soon as we have any updates” and urged others to avoid the area. Pereira said he has not yet heard from officials. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a post on X that the state government “stands ready to provide any assistance needed” and advised people to avoid the area. The building, formerly home to Pfizer’s global headquarters, is being converted into a 1,500-unit luxury rental complex. The Department of Buildings says it has an active construction permit. The FDNY said it got a call around 8 a.m. about bricks falling from the building at 235 East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues. The NYPD says it got a 911 call about the incident less than 15 minutes later. When cops got to the scene, the NYPD says officers were told that construction workers on the 21st floor of the commercial building saw the columns beginning to collapse. Raw footage from inside, taken by a construction worker, showed crumbling steel columns on the 21st floor. There were no reported injuries, and all workers are accounted for, according to officials. It is unclear how many workers were on site when the building began to show signs of distress.