Midtown East building partially collapses, nearby blocks evacuated after buckling beams

Support beams began buckling on the 21st floor of 235 East 42nd Street Tuesday morning, forcing evacuations across Midtown East as the former Pfizer headquarters started to cave under the strain. The failure spread through floors 21 to 26, with two columns buckling on the 21st and 22nd floors and sagging visible across the upper levels. The tower sits one block west of United Nations headquarters, near Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler Building.

Construction workers first noticed the problem around 8:00 a.m. to 8:11 a.m. after seeing the structure begin to fail. The New York City Fire Department received the initial call just before 8 a.m. about falling bricks, and the New York City Department of Buildings sent inspectors and engineers to the site as investigators got underway.

At least nine neighboring buildings were evacuated as a precaution, including the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central and a school with about 400 students. East 42nd Street was closed between Second and Third avenues, and East 44th Street was also closed between those avenues while crews secured the area.

The building, a 37-story or 38-story former Pfizer headquarters, is being converted from office space to residential use in one of the city’s largest office-to-apartment conversions. The redevelopment is a 1,500-unit luxury rental complex, with some reporting putting the total above 1,600 units. No injuries occurred, and all construction workers were accounted for while investigators worked to determine what caused the buckling.