FDNY evacuates Manhattan tower after steel beams buckle during renovation

Union official says builders used insufficient steel for added floors

The New York City Fire Department received calls around 8 a.m. Tuesday about bricks falling from the facade of a 37-story building at 235 East 42nd Street in Manhattan, according to FDNY officials. Workers inside reported seeing cracks in the building and support beams buckling between the 21st and 22nd floors, and they self-evacuated. Officials then evacuated nine surrounding buildings, including the Kennedy International School.

FDNY Chief John Esposito said there were no injuries associated with the compromised building.

“It’s a very serious situation because the box beams — the steel beams — have started to bend and deflect from the weight,” Esposito said in a statement on X. “We evacuated the building and started evacuations of surrounding buildings. The building has continued to move since we have been on the scene.”

Photos from UPI appeared to show a beam or column separated from the building.

The building, formerly the headquarters of Pfizer, was being renovated into a new 1,600-unit apartment complex along with another building nearby, according to WABC-TV in New York City. Workers were adding 19 new floors to the original 10-story structure. The New York Times reported that the overhaul was part of an effort in Midtown Manhattan to repurpose empty office buildings into residential projects amid the city’s housing shortage.

Cliff Jensen, a business agent for the Steamfitters Local 638 Union, told the Times that the builders on the project did not use enough steel to support the new floors being added to the building.

The building received seven violations from the city between July 2025 and December 2025, resulting in more than $32,000 in fines, WABC reported. The city’s Department of Buildings filed a complaint Tuesday saying the developers carried out excavations beyond what had been approved in construction plans.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday that officials were conducting a “minute-by-minute assessment” of the situation and encouraged New Yorkers to avoid the area.