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MIDTOWN EAST, Manhattan (WABC) -- Several floors of a Midtown Manhattan office building that's under construction are caving in on Tuesday, prompting the evacuation of several adjacent buildings and street closures.
A structural column buckled on the 21st floor and additional structural issues were subsequently discovered, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
"The building remains unstable," Mamdani said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon, as there has been additional movement in one of the columns since city officials arrived.
The high-rise, at 235 E. 42nd St., is on the corner of East 42nd Street and Second Avenue and is the former headquarters of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company and is under conversion to residential use.
Around 8 a.m., construction workers noticed cracks inside the building. The FDNY say the workers spotted structural support beams beginning to buckle on the 21st and 22nd floors and self-evacuated.
Multiple buildings have been evacuated, including a hotel and a school, and work is now underway to stabilize the building.
The city is using highly sensitive equipment that can measure the smallest of movement and the column's movement is a concern.
"It does mean that it is not yet stable, it is still a very serious and dangerous situation," Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani added.
The steel beams have begun to "bend and deflect," Chief of Fire Department John Esposito said
If the building were to give way, it would "not be a total collapse, it would be more of a localized collapse," Esposito added.
Every worker is accounted for and there are no injuries reported, police say.
The building is topped out at 37 floors and as more infrastructure was added to the floors above the 21st floors, the load-bearing columns became more stressed, officials say.
Mamdani said the current frozen zone is set up from First and Third avenues between 40th to 45th Streets. Those streets are closed to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
Building evacuations and street closures The FDNY said the following buildings have been evacuated:
815 Second Avenue
235 East 42nd Street
210 East 43rd Street
212 East 43rd Street
211 East 43rd Street
220 East 42nd Street
231 East 43rd Street
225 East 43rd Street
235 East 43rd Street
Additionally, 225 East 43rd Street is the Kennedy International School. Mamdani said at an unrelated news conference that approximately 400 students attend the school.
Pedestrian and vehicular traffic is closed on East 42nd Street between Second and Third avenues.
Second Avenue is closed from 38th to 44th streets and 43rd and 44th streets are closed between Second and Third avenues.
Mamdani said those who live or work in the frozen zone will get updates.
2025, resulting with more than $32,000 in fines issued.
There are at least 22 violations that date back to 2020.
Metro Loft, the developer of the conversion project, released a statement saying, "We are working closely with the Department of Buildings to understand the full scope of the situation. The safety of our workers and the public has always been, and remains, our top priority."
The cause of the instability will be determined after the emergency trusses are in place, according to the buildings commissioner.