Manhattan skyscraper teeters as buckling columns force mass Midtown evacuation

A 37-story tower under construction near Grand Central Terminal was at risk of collapse Tuesday morning, triggering a frantic emergency response and mass evacuations during the Midtown rush.

Firefighters said they got a call just before 8 a.m. about bricks falling from 235 East 42nd Street, the former global headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, now being converted into apartments in what officials have called the largest office-to-apartment conversion in city history.

Construction workers on the 21st floor spotted two structural support columns beginning to buckle and self-evacuated, according to the NYPD. Inspectors found the columns had buckled and that floors between the 21st and 26th were sagging, the Fire Department said. Some reports described several floors as having caved in.

There were no injuries, and all workers were accounted for. Out of caution, officials cleared the building and a widening ring of neighboring properties, including the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central, and shut East 42nd Street between Second and Third avenues, snarling traffic and detouring buses in one of the city's busiest corridors.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged people nearby to follow first responders' instructions, noting that beyond the evacuated buildings, "a school with about 400 children has also been evacuated."

The FDNY deployed 21 units and 79 personnel, and Department of Buildings structural engineers were on the scene. The agency said a steel beam had been compromised on the 21st floor. The site holds an active construction permit, and the NYPD and Buildings Department said their investigations were ongoing.

The redevelopment, which began in 2024, is slated to bring roughly 1,600 apartments, including more than 400 affordable units, to the block.