Evacuated Manhattan Building ‘Remains Unstable,’ Mamdani Says

A Midtown Manhattan building, which formerly housed Pfizer offices and is being converted into apartments, “remains unstable” hours after that building and several others nearby were evacuated due to its support columns buckling, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday afternoon.

In a press briefing Tuesday afternoon, Mamdani said two structural columns in the building have buckled and the building “remains unstable,” saying officials have seen continued movement in one of the impacted columns since arriving on scene this morning.

Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of New York’s Department of Buildings, said Tuesday afternoon the city is bringing in emergency beams and columns to support the building.

Mamdani said New Yorkers should “avoid the area until it has been deemed safe to reenter.”

The building, as well as several nearby buildings in New York’s Midtown East neighborhood, were evacuated Tuesday morning, while surrounding streets were closed.

Mamdani said Tuesday no injuries have been reported and all construction workers have been accounted for.

The New York Fire Department said it received a call shortly before 8 a.m. EDT saying bricks were spotted falling from the 21st floor of the building, multiple outlets reported, where officials then discovered two support columns were buckling. That building and others nearby were evacuated shortly thereafter. Cliff Johnsen, business agent for the Steamfitters Local 638 Union, told the New York Times the “north side of that building is crumbling,” saying support beams “are bending like cigarettes in there.” Metro Loft Management, a real estate agency leading the building’s conversion, told Bloomberg in a statement it is “aware of what happened and are working closely with the Department of Buildings to understand the full scope of the situation.”

City officials received complaints about unsafe conditions at the building as early as spring 2025, according to The City Reporter, which cited records that described incidents of falling debris and two worker injuries at the building last year. New York’s buildings department charged the building’s general contractor with more than $32,000 in fines, primarily for construction safety violations, since July 2025, according to The City Reporter.

The high-rise is located near Grand Central Station in Midtown East, on the 200 block of 42nd Street. Pfizer moved its offices to the building in 1961, relocating from another building across the street. Pfizer announced in 2016 it would sell the building and search for a new office space in New York, and in July 2018, the building was jointly purchased by real estate investor David Werner, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Deutsche Bank and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board for a reported $363.5 million. Werner and Metro Loft Management announced in 2024 the building would be converted into an apartment building with 1,500 units, which Manhattan’s then-borough president Mark Levine said would be the largest such conversion in the city’s history. Demolition of the building’s interior began in 2024, and the New York Times reported the project was scheduled to be completed by 2027.

Earlier Tuesday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday morning there are no injuries reported and all construction workers have been accounted for, adding about 400 children have been evacuated from a nearby school. The FDNY said in a post on X shortly before noon EDT on Tuesday it remains on scene while partner agencies investigate reports of structural issues. New York’s emergency notification system also alerted residents Tuesday morning of potential traffic delays in the area and urged people to use alternate routes.