Steel Beams Buckle in a 37-Story Midtown Tower, Forcing Mass Evacuations at the Old Pfizer Headquarters

A construction emergency shut down a swath of Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday after two steel support beams on the 21st floor of a 37-story tower began buckling, sagging the floors above and prompting the evacuation of the building and at least nine of its neighbors. The trouble began around 8 a.m., when the FDNY received a report of bricks falling from 235 East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues — the former global headquarters of drugmaker Pfizer.

Firefighters found a far more serious problem than falling masonry. Officials said box beams on the 21st floor had started to bend, and floors were visibly sagging between the 21st and 26th stories. "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 told reporters at the scene. A union representative, Cliff Johnsen, put it more bluntly, saying the high beams were "bending like cigarettes in there, which is super dangerous."

The building is in the middle of a massive office-to-residential conversion — billed as one of the largest such projects in New York City history — that is turning the old Pfizer tower into roughly 1,600 luxury rental apartments. Investigators believe the buckling may have been triggered by the weight of a new rooftop addition, as the tower's upper floors were being expanded outward during the renovation. Windows were also reported cracking as the structure shifted.

More than 100 FDNY and EMS personnel responded, and the city Department of Buildings ordered emergency stabilization work. Crews installed struts and jacks and began adding new steel to shore up the failing beams. DOB Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said engineers were working to secure the structure, and by evening officials said the building had been deemed "stable" for the time being, though the situation remained under close watch.

Authorities established a "frozen zone" spanning 40th to 45th streets between First and Third avenues, closing streets and rerouting traffic in one of the busiest corridors near Grand Central Terminal. Residents and workers in the surrounding evacuated buildings were kept out as a precaution while inspectors assessed the risk of a partial collapse.

The tower had drawn scrutiny before Tuesday's scare. City records show at least seven violations tied to the project, including a $5,000 fine last July after a window-glass incident and a $10,000 penalty in August after a metal panel fell, along with a previous temporary stop-work order. No injuries were reported in Tuesday's emergency, which officials called a near-miss in one of the most densely trafficked parts of the city.