Unstable building on East 42nd Street forces multiple evacuations in Midtown Manhattan

An unstable building under construction has forced evacuations and street closures in Midtown Manhattan, firefighters said.

More than 100 fire and EMS personnel responded to reports of bricks falling just before 8 a.m. Tuesday at 235 East 42nd Street. 

The call initially came in as bricks falling from the 37-story building, but when the FDNY arrived on the scene they found buckling and sagging floor conditions. Department of Buildings officials said when they arrived, they didn’t see falling debris but found structural damage.

Video from inside the building show two columns buckled on the 21st floor. Officials said floors were sagging between the 21st and the 26th floor. 

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said there has been “additional movement in one of the compromised columns.”

Once the building is deemed safe to enter, structural engineers will shore up the building with emergency trusses. 

No injuries were reported, and all workers have been accounted for, Mamdani said.   

Tuesday afternoon, after several hours of the building not showing any further movement, emergency crews went back inside, going floor to floor. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul said her team is in close contact with NYC officials and are prepared to provide any assistance needed. 

Several neighboring buildings evacuated

Nine buildings have been evacuated: 

• 225 East 43rd Street
• 231 East 43rd Street
• 217 East 43rd Street
• 815 2nd Avenue 
• 211 East 43rd Street 
• 235 East 42nd Street (the unstable building)
• 235 East 43rd Street 
• 681-701 3rd Avenue 
• 210 East 43rd Street 

“A number of tall buildings in the area are also being evacuated at this time. A school with about 400 children has also been evacuated,” Mamdani said. 

A frozen zone in the area has been reduced in size to stretch from 41st to 43rd streets between First and Third avenues. The area is shut down to pedestrians and vehicular traffic. The FDNY has also established a “collapse zone.”

New Yorkers were urged to avoid the area.

Department of Buildings officials are investigating reports that a steel beam was compromised. 

Officials are using FDNY drone footage to examine the building. 

“It’s a very serious situation because the box beams—the steel beams—have started to bend and deflect from the weight,” FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said. “We evacuated the building and started evacuations of surrounding buildings. The building has continued to move since we have been on the scene.”  

“High beams are bending like cigarettes” 

A representative from the Steamfitters Union said they saw cracked windows, bent beams and concrete falling from the roof. 

“They were up working on the floor, and somebody saw that the concrete was coming down, the beams started bending, the windows started buzzing,” said union spokesperson Cliff Johnsen. 

Johnsen said the developer wanted to add 16 stories. He said not enough steel was being added to the building. 

“They obviously didn’t add the right amount of steel. The north side of that building is crumbling, the high beams are bending like cigarettes in there, which is super dangerous,” Johnsen said. “Somebody saw that concrete was coming down.”

He blamed the developer for the incident.

“They chose profit over safety and put my members and every construction worker over here in general,” Johnsen said. 

The law does not require construction work sites to use union labor. 

“They should have used the New York City Union ironworkers to begin with, and I guarantee you you wouldn’t have had this problem,” Johnsen said. 

“First and foremost, we want to thank the FDNY, NYPD, and DOB for their quick response. The safety of everyone at and surrounding the building is our number one priority. 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,” developer Metro Loft said in a statement.

Multiple reports of debris falling

This is not the first time the city has responded to reports of things falling from this construction site.

Inspectors issued a $5,000 fine to the contractor, 235 GC LLC, in July 2025 after the buildings department said a piece of window glass from the eighth floor landed on a sidewalk shed.

In August 2025, city records show a metal panel fell from the 33rd floor and landed on the sidewalk. The city issued a $10,000 penalty for that and a temporary stop-work order for the entire site.

The contractor has racked up a total of seven violations and tens of thousands in fines over the last year.

Office to residential conversion

The building is the former Pfizer headquarters, but it is being converted to 1,600 luxury rental apartments. 

The project has been billed by developers as New York City’s largest office-to-residential conversion ever. 

The former Pfizer headquarters is two connected buildings and would become a massive residential complex. New floors are being added to one of the buildings. The 37-story 235 East 42nd Street is being redesigned. 

Construction accident attorney Chris Gorayeb says the standard process is the owner hires a general contractor, the contractor hires an architect who works with engineers to get a plan approved by the Department of Buildings. 

“There’s going to be extensive litigation to determine exactly who dropped the ball and who was ultimately responsible for what is going to a very expensive fix,” Gorayeb said. 

Each office-to-resident conversion presents its own challenges. The one underway at 325 East 42nd Street underwent an extensive two year review by the city. 

Now investigators will have to determine whether the failure was in the design, the construction, or somewhere in between.