A dramatic emergency has blocked part of Midtown Manhattan, New York, after structural columns suddenly buckled on the 21st and 22nd floors of a 37-story skyscraper located on the famous “42nd“ street near Grand Central Station.
The incident prompted the immediate evacuation of a total of nine surrounding buildings, including foreign consulates, and the imposition of a strict “freeze zone“ for pedestrians and vehicles.
The compromised building is the former corporate headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which is currently undergoing a major renovation to turn it into a residential complex. Workers on the site were the first to notice huge cracks in the structure, bending steel beams, and bricks falling from the facade onto the street, then raised the alarm and left the site.
City engineers and the Fire Department (FDNY) are assessing the situation literally minute by minute. The fire chief reassured the public that a complete collapse of the building is impossible due to its steel structure, but there is a real risk of “localized collapse” of the compromised floors. Construction crews worked through the night to install temporary shoring to stabilize the structure. A check of Department of Buildings (DOB) records revealed that the site had numerous previous safety violations and fines, most often related to falling debris in the past year.