Midtown Manhattan building is stabilized, with no further movement detected as several evacuations remain, city says

Emergency construction crews have temporarily stabilized the interior of a midtown Manhattan building that was in danger of partially collapsing, city officials said Wednesday.

Some of the previously evacuated buildings in the area can now be reoccupied, but traffic and pedestrian restrictions on one of the surrounding blocks, as well as evacuation orders for several nearby buildings, remained in place.

Restrictions on pedestrians, motorists and cyclists that were in place early Tuesday afternoon had mostly been lifted as of Wednesday afternoon, with only East 43rd Street between Second and Third avenues, the block closest to where the beams bent, still closed, and a stretch of curb and sidewalk in front of the building entrance on East 42nd Street also closed.

New York City Buildings Department spokesperson David Maggiotto said in a Wednesday afternoon statement: "Licensed surveyors have been conducting continuous monitoring of the site, looking for any additional movement of the steel columns. No additional movement has been detected since Tuesday morning.

"As of this morning, emergency shoring has been installed from 18th through 23rd floor, including structural steel shoring columns on the 21st and 22nd floors, and light duty shoring posts on floors 18, 19, 20 and 23," the statement said.

Work is being done under the supervision of the owner’s engineer and a third-party engineer uninvolved in the original project.

"The contractors expect a delivery of additional structural steel shoring columns later this afternoon and will be replacing the light duty shoring posts on all floors with steel columns," the statement said.

Light-duty posts were installed because they’re quicker to install; the more permanent ones take longer to be delivered.

As of Wednesday afternoon, city inspectors and engineers were still investigating the “structural failure,” the Buildings Department said on X.

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said he supports a “full and thorough” investigation into the matter Wednesday afternoon on X. He described converting office spaces into residences as “essential to tackling our housing crisis,” but that the city “must get them right” so New Yorkers “have confidence in the safety of their homes, workplaces and neighborhoods.”

“What happened was deeply alarming and put New Yorkers at risk,” Hoylman-Sigal said on X. “We need to know exactly what went wrong and ensure it never happens again.”

Life is almost back to normal near the damaged building, with pedestrians, cyclists and drivers traveling along the perimeter of the shrunken "frozen zone." Those who work, live or are staying in one of the nearby buildings are being allowed in and out by the police.

At East 43rd Street and Second Avenue, pickets from the Mason Tenders’ District Council of Greater New York and Long Island, Local 79, protested the lack of union labor at the site, citing Tuesday’s incident as what they consider to be the inevitable outcome of nonunionized labor. The union brought two inflatable rats, a bullhorn and a truck criticizing the project.

Contractors and construction workers moved in, around and out of the building, with over 100 shoring jacks piled in the street bundled atop dollies.

Places under a full vacate order due to proximity include 815 Second Ave., 235 E. 43rd St., 231 E. 43rd St. and 225 E. 43rd St. There is a partial commercial unit vacate order in place for the Yakiniku TORAJI restaurant at 217 E. 43rd St.

All other evacuation orders were lifted by the Department of Buildings.

Speaking late Tuesday, Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said officials were "feeling confident" emergency shoring measures put in place at 235 E. 42nd St. following assessments by inspectors and other experts stabilized the structure.

Just before 8 a.m. Tuesday, FDNY firefighters and members of the NYPD responded to reports of falling bricks on East 42nd Street to find two beams buckling on the 21st floor of the building, at 235 E. 42nd St. Once home to the world headquarters of Pfizer, the building has been undergoing renovations and construction to turn it into space for 1,500 apartments since 2024. Set to be 37 stories tall, the project is among New York City's biggest such conversions. 

The site is blocks away from Grand Central Terminal, the Chrysler Building and the United Nations.

Construction workers on-site were all able to evacuate without any reported injuries, the FDNY said.

Newsday's Nicholas Grasso contributed to this story.