Columns inside a Manhattan high-rise office building buckled Tuesday, setting off a scramble to shore up the structure before it partially collapsed. Emergency crews installed temporary supports to stabilize the building, which is being converted into apartments.
New York City officials said the building is now stable and hasn't shown any new movement. The contractor and city officials are discussing long-term solutions for the building.
Here's what we know:
What's the status of stabilizing the building?
Temporary shoring and beams have been completely installed on floors 18 through 23, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday. The emergency support measures will be installed from floor nine to the top floor of the 37-story tower, he said. Mamdani said the building hasn't shown any movement since Tuesday morning.
After the emergency work concludes, the city's Department of Buildings "is going to be conducting a rigorous assessment and ensuring that the plans and the site are fully compliant with all codes before any nonemergency work moves forward," Mamdani said.
Evacuation orders remain in place
Three nearby buildings as well as the former Pfizer headquarters remain under evacuation orders. A ground-floor restaurant in the area has also been evacuated.
"Officials continue to assess conditions and will provide updates on re-entry as soon as it is safe to do so," a spokeswoman for New York City Emergency Management said Wednesday.
Some street closures have been lifted, but 42nd and 43rd streets between Second and Third avenues are still closed to vehicular traffic.
A block away from the former Pfizer building, guests who had been evacuated from the Hampton Inn the day before waited on the street corner Wednesday morning to get inside to retrieve luggage and belongings. The hotel's vacate order has yet to be lifted.
"I mean, it is stressful," said Denisse Cufré, a 40-year-old visiting from Buenos Aires, who had to leave her luggage at the hotel Tuesday. Cufré, a human-rights and LGBTQ activist in the city for an event at the United Nations, has been relocated to another hotel in Times Square.
"New York City is a wild city," she said. "Anything can happen here."
How severe was the threat of partial collapse?
The high-rise had structural concerns on the 21st floor, officials said. First responders rushed to the scene early Tuesday and found two buckled columns and several sagging floors.
New York City Fire Department Chief John Esposito at the time said it was a "very serious and dangerous situation" because the unstable building had continued to shift.
But there was little likelihood of the entire building coming down, officials said. If parts of the building had given way, it would have most likely been a localized collapse rather than total destruction.
The risk of partial collapse likely stemmed from the weight of an addition at the top of the building, according to the project's developer.
Who is responsible for the building conversion?
MetroLoft is one of the companies leading the redevelopment of the building. The ambitious project aims to transform the former Pfizer headquarters complex in Midtown into roughly 1,600 apartments, along with a rooftop pool, fitness center and ground-floor shops. It is expected to be completed next year and is the largest ever office-to-residential conversion in the country.
The developer said the increased weight from the widening of about 15 top floors -- starting on the 22nd floor -- caused the structural damage. Gensler, the architectural firm working on the project, declined to comment and referred all questions to MetroLoft.
Updates to follow as news develops
Write to Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com and Joseph Pisani at joseph.pisani@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 08, 2026 12:28 ET (16:28 GMT)
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