The area surrounding a high-rise building in the heart of Midtown Manhattan has been closed after steel beams inside the structure began “bending like cigarettes.”
The building, located within walking distance of some of New York’s most famous landmarks, was evacuated Tuesday. The high-rise – the former global headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer – has been undergoing extensive renovations to convert it into over 1,600 residential apartments.
Located at 235 East 42nd Street, the 37-story structure is located across the street from the former Daily News Building and the Westin New York Grand Central Hotel. It is also minutes from the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central.
A few minutes walk away is both Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building, with the United Nations Headquarters two blocks to the east.
A “frozen zone” has been established along East 42nd Street and East 43rd Street between Second and Third Avenues, with the area being closed to vehicles and pedestrians.
Traffic is being rerouted around the area. In total, five buildings in the vicinity remain partially or fully vacated. People who live and work in the zone, but not in one of those five buildings, will be granted access, according to city officials.
Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, said late Tuesday that the building was being monitored and that no movement had been seen.
Early on Tuesday, construction workers noticed alarming signs of stress — steel beams “bending like cigarettes,” cracks and falling bricks — in the building and ordered an evacuation of nearby hotels, offices and a school with 400 students. No injuries have been reported.
One displaced hotel guest told Fox 5 that they were ironing their shirt when someone on a bullhorn shouted, “Evacuate the building!”
Another guest said staff told them that they cannot stay at the hotel. “Then we got an email from the manager saying staying here is not optional,” the guest said. “‘You need to go ahead and come get your stuff.’”
Gensler, the architectural firm involved in the renovations, said that the project would be the “largest conversion in New York City history upon its completion.”
The building will offer more than 1,600 apartments, including 400 affordable housing units, the firm says. As part of the conversion project, workers have been in the process of adding 11 floors to an area that was previously 22 stories, according to The Real Deal. The project is part of a broader plan to turn office space into residential units amid a housing shortage in New York City.
Nathan Berman, the founder of project developer MetroLoft, told The Wall Street Journal said that the damage was confined to a small part of the addition to the building.
“Ninety-five percent of the building, the structure is sound and intact,” he said. “There is no way that this corner of a small extension all of a sudden topples this building.”
But Cliff Johnson, a representative for Steamfitters Local 638 who had been working on the building, told reporters Tuesday: “They obviously didn’t add the right amount of steel, so the north side is crumbling.”
“The I-beams are bending like cigarettes in there, which is super dangerous,” he added.
When asked about concerns of a collapse, New York City Fire Department Chief John Esposito told The Associated Press that the building’s structure meant that “it would not be a total collapse, it would be more of a localized collapse.”