Overview
- The former Pfizer tower under conversion to apartments showed internal damage on Tuesday when crews and responders found two load‑bearing columns deformed at the 21st and 22nd floors and floors sagging between the 21st and 26th floors.
- The Fire Department deployed roughly 40 units and about 130 firefighters and medics, used drones to inspect the shell, and ordered street, hotel, business and apartment evacuations near Grand Central and the United Nations.
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the building remains unstable and reported new movement on a weakened column while the developer Metroloft said the risk of a full collapse is limited and the damage is confined to a small section.
- DOB structural engineers are developing shoring and reinforcement plans on site and their inspection and any enforcement actions will determine whether work pauses, permits change or broader safety orders follow.
- The tower is part of one of New York’s largest office‑to‑residential conversions, a project critics say can add loads and complexity to old steel frames and which could prompt tighter city oversight of similar conversions if regulators find design or construction failings.