Buckling former Pfizer headquarters triggers evacuations in Midtown East

Buckling support columns at the former Pfizer global headquarters in Midtown East forced evacuations across the neighborhood Tuesday, after workers spotted cracks inside the building and called it in around 8 a.m. The incident at 235 E. 42nd St., on the corner of East 42nd Street and Second Avenue, raised immediate questions about the risks of turning older office towers into housing while construction is still underway.

The building is being converted into a 1,500-unit luxury rental complex. FDNY officials said structural support beams began buckling on the 21st and 22nd floors, and stress spread upward through the 26th floor. Workers were seen leaving the site as emergency crews moved in, while police and fire units closed streets and kept people away from the block.

No injuries were reported, and authorities said all workers were accounted for. Even so, the response widened quickly beyond the construction site. At least nine nearby buildings were evacuated as a precaution, including the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central at 231 E. 43rd St. A school with about 400 children was also cleared, underscoring how many people share the same dense Midtown East corridor.

The building’s owner has been pursuing one of the city’s larger office-to-residential conversions, part of a wider push to create apartments out of aging commercial space. But the emergency showed how a project meant to help ease housing pressure can become a public-safety concern when structural problems surface during renovation. In a city where conversions are increasingly viewed as a housing fix, the episode put the condition of the underlying steel and concrete back at the center of the debate.

The New York City Department of Buildings said it had an active construction permit for the project. FDNY said inspectors were on site and the investigation was ongoing as crews examined the affected floors and the stability of the structure. Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged people in the area to follow first responders’ instructions as the scene remained active through the morning.

For Midtown East, the immediate issue was not redevelopment or housing policy, but whether a prominent tower at East 42nd Street and Second Avenue could safely support the work transforming it. The answer, for now, was an emergency perimeter, evacuated buildings and a construction site under scrutiny.