Overview
- The crisis began Tuesday morning when construction workers found two interior steel columns buckling on the 21st and 22nd floors and multiple floors sagging up through about the 26th floor.
- Firefighters and Department of Buildings engineers evacuated the tower and nearby properties, closed streets and a school with roughly 400 children, and treated the response as a major technical rescue with drones and monitoring gear.
- By late Tuesday crews installed emergency supports and monitoring showed the compromised section had stopped moving, allowing most evacuated residents to return with no reported injuries.
- City records show the site had multiple prior complaints, stop-work orders and safety violations dating to 2025, and some workers and union representatives have alleged inadequate shoring and non‑union practices at the job site.
- Officials say a formal probe will determine the cause and responsibility, and the outcome could affect how complex office‑to‑residential conversions are reviewed and permitted in the city.