Streets around a midtown Manhattan high-rise remain blocked off Wednesday after concerns the 37-floor building could collapse following the buckling of several of its columns, though officials say the structure is stable for now.
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Crews worked around the clock to stabilize the building. Four nearby buildings were still completely evacuated as of midday Wednesday.
Video from a day earlier showed some steel beams on the high-rise severely warped. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said temporary shoring and beams were installed on floors 18-23, with additional shoring and beams to be added to other floors throughout the day.
"As soon as we answer the emergency questions around safety in this moment, we are going to be conducting a full investigation as to how we got to this point," Mamdani said. "Because this is not a necessary consequence of an office-to-residential conversion. This, however, is a breakdown in that process."
The building was formerly part of Pfizer's global headquarters and is now being converted into a 1,600-unit luxury apartment building. The project is part of a growing trend, with more than 90,000 office buildings in the pipeline to be converted into apartments nationwide. More than 16,000 of those projects are in New York alone, according to a recent analysis.
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Carlo A. Scissura, president and CEO of the New York Building Congress, said the broader conversion trend has been a success, even as this particular project faces challenges.
"New York's office to residential conversion has been a grand success," Scissura said. "One of the greatest stories in America construction is office to residential. This particular site was always going to be challenging because it's so big. The location — there's a lot going on there."
Abi Aghayere, professor of structural engineering at Drexel University, said one unique challenge in office-to-residential conversions is that office buildings have shared bathrooms, while residential units require individual bathrooms. That means contractors must be particularly careful when drilling extra holes for HVAC and plumbing.
"There are things that need to be taken into account," Aghayere said. "If well taken into our account, there should be no problem going from an office building to a residential."
