What we know so far
• An under-construction Midtown Manhattan building that was evacuated after structural columns buckled remains unstable, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, describing the situation as “extremely serious.”
• A New York City Fire chief said there is concern about the possibility of a “localized collapse,” but added that the building is constructed in such a way that a total collapse is not possible. A team of six is now in the building to determine if shoring efforts can begin, according to a city official.
• The building, located on East 42nd Street, is the former headquarters for Pfizer and is currently being converted into apartments. No injuries have been reported, and all workers have been accounted for, FDNY said.
Unstable high-rise building is site of major office-to-apartment conversion
The unstable Midtown high-rise is the location of a project to convert Pfizer’s old headquarters into apartments. It’s an ambitious architectural undertaking that is part of a trend of converting former offices to apartments.
The building conversion is being developed by Metro Loft and David Werner Real Estate Investments with architectural firm Gensler. The renovation focuses on adjoining buildings at 219 and 235 East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, just by Grand Central Terminal.
The project includes building 19 new stories atop an existing 10-story structure at 219 East 42nd and “reconfiguring and recladding” the adjoining 33-story tower at 235 East 42nd, according to Gensler. It’s slated to be completed in 2027.
The planned building would include roughly 1,600 apartments, making it the largest office-to-apartment conversion project in New York City history, according to Gensler. About 25% of the planned apartments — 400 units — are slated to be affordable housing units.
Robert Fuller, a principal at Gensler, told Bloomberg in 2025: “It’s quite a bit of surgery,” referring to the Pfizer building conversion. “There’s just a lot of technical challenges and unique conditions from floor to floor. All those things collectively make this quite a unique endeavor and I would argue probably more challenging than any other one I can think of.”
These conversions can reinvent out-of-use buildings and create more housing in cities that are lacking in supply. Office-to-apartment conversions have ballooned in popularity since the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in hybrid and remote work, emptying many office spaces.
Metro Loft previously co-developed 25 Water Street in downtown Manhattan. That conversion transformed JPMorgan Chase’s old offices into 1,320 apartments.
Nathan Berman, founder at Metro Loft, told The New York Times in 2025 that converting old office buildings into apartments helps remove “the millions of feet of space that are essentially obsolete.”
“They can’t compete as office buildings anymore, and we’re taking them, sort of, out of the race,” he said.
Midtown Manhattan high-rise before and after project addition
Aerial images show the change to the former Pfizer building over a year.
The image on the left, captured March 11, 2025, shows the building before construction, and the image on the right, captured April 7, 2026, shows the building during construction as it was being converted into apartments.
Calm weather expected at high-rise through at least Thursday morning
Unremarkable weather is in the immediate forecast at the high-rise site with routine summer storms possible later in the week.
It’s cloudy and largely dry with light winds in Manhattan this afternoon. Skies will gradually clear tonight into Wednesday and winds will remain light, around 5 to 10 mph.
Hit-or-miss thunderstorms are possible in the area later Thursday afternoon through Thursday evening but are not currently forecast to be intense or have damaging wind gusts. Winds are still likely to remain under 10 mph for the day, but slightly stronger isolated gusts are possible in any thunderstorm.
A similar chance for scattered thunderstorms is possible late Friday afternoon into Friday evening. Winds are still forecast to remain generally under 10 mph.
Unstable building had been Pfizer’s headquarters since 1961
The Midtown Manhattan building that started to buckle Tuesday was the world headquarters for major pharmaceutical company Pfizer for more than 60 years.
Pfizer moved to the East 42nd Street building in 1961, when it began a decade of “substantial growth,” according to the company’s timeline. It later also occupied the building next door, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The company was founded in 1849 by two cousins, Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, in a red brick building in Brooklyn. It moved its headquarters to Lower Manhattan in 1868.
The drugmaker announced plans to sell its Midtown Manhattan headquarters in 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported. It signed a lease two years later to move to Hudson Yards to “provide our colleagues (with) a modern, state-of-the-art headquarters,” according to a company press release. Pfizer held a grand opening at its new Hudson Yards headquarters in April 2023.
Pfizer sold its 1.1-million-square-foot former headquarters at 219-235 East 42nd Street to David Werner, a real estate investor, in 2018 for $357 million, according to BKREA, a commercial brokerage company that handled the transaction.
CNN has reached out to Pfizer for comment about its former headquarters.
Team of 6 reenters building for inspection
A team of six people is entering the building to assess the structural integrity of the 33-story high-rise to determine whether shoring efforts can safely begin, a New York City official told CNN.
The building has not moved for approximately 2 hours.
The team is comprised of representatives from NYC Department of Buildings’ construction safety, DOB engineering, New York City Fire Department FDNY and Collaborative Construction Management (the contractor).
NYC buildings department files complaint against owner of unstable building
The New York City Department of Buildings filed a complaint against the owner of the unstable Midtown Manhattan building today, accusing the owner of performing construction contrary to previously approved plans.
The complaint, filed against the owner, listed as 235 Fee Owner LLC, noted that “no support of excavation has been approved.”
The owner could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Buildings Department has assigned the complaint to the agency’s Construction Safety Enforcement team.
Metro Loft, the project’s developer, provided CNN an updated statement this afternoon, emphasizing that the building is not at risk of collapsing.
An attorney who represents the building owner and developer in connection with civil litigation involving the building said she had no comment and added that she was not authorized to speak on the matter.
This post has been updated with additional information.
Initial reports of "bricks falling off the building" not confirmed
Initial reports received by the FDNY of “bricks falling off the building” at the active construction site on East 42nd Street in Manhattan were not confirmed, New York City Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said.
Tigani called it an “example of how information changes over time.”
“The initial report that came in was about bricks falling off the building. When arriving, we did not see evidence of that,” he said.
What a "localized collapse" could mean as other columns take on more load
With two of its columns buckled, the other beams and bracings throughout the high-rise building in Midtown Manhattan are now taking on more of the load, said Matthew Roblez, a structural engineer.
“The danger isn’t just on the outside where the buckling is visible; it’s on the inside where you have columns taking additional load to make up for that one,” he said in an interview on CNN News Central.
While a building is being renovated, the distribution of its weight is modified, according to Roblez. This means during construction like this, “buildings see more load than they’re ever going to see,” he said.
Officials said earlier today that the building is still moving and unstable, which means personnel are not yet able to enter to reinforce the compromised sections. FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said because the building has a steel frame, it is at risk of a “localized collapse.”
A localized collapse is considered a collapse that is limited to a specific area of a building, an FDNY spokesperson told CNN. The opposite of a total “crumbling down of a structure,” the person said.
But a localized collapse is still considered serious because it means inspectors would need more time to assess the safety of the site and determine how to shore up the specific location and the building, the spokesperson said.
If there were a partial collapse, it would delay the process of shoring up the building, which has not even started yet, according to the FDNY.
Roblez said that hopefully “the redundancy of the interior columns will allow the building to stop moving.”
What we learned about the high-rise’s condition from officials
A 33-story high-rise in Midtown Manhattan remains unstable after it was evacuated because of buckled columns, cracks and sagging floors, New York City officials said at a news conference Tuesday.
Authorities are continuing to assess the situation as nearby buildings have been evacuated. No injuries have been reported, and all workers are accounted for, the FDNY said.
The building, located on East 42nd Street, is the former headquarters of Pfizer and is currently being converted into apartments.
If you’re just joining us, here’s what else we know:
- “The building remains unstable,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said that an assessment was done “and the building was determined to be unstable.”
- Engineers with the New York City Department of Buildings are investigating the structural integrity of the Manhattan high-rise with FDNY drones, Mamdani said.
- FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said the building “has continued to move” since officials arrived on the scene. “It’s a very serious situation,” he said.
- Esposito said authorities have prepared for a potential collapse. “We have a frozen zone and a collapse zone set up, and we are working with the Buildings Department and the building engineer to make sure that this is safe for all people and for all New Yorkers,” he said.
- Esposito added that since the building has a steel frame, “it would not be a total collapse. It would be a more localized collapse.”
CNN’s Elise Hammond, Rebekah Riess, Gloria Pazmino and Alisha Ebrahimji contributed to this report.
Here’s where the high-rise is located
The under-construction building, which was evacuated after some of its structural columns buckled, is located on 42nd Street on the east side of Manhattan — about a block away from the Chrysler Building.
Earlier Tuesday morning, officials received a call about falling bricks from a 33-story building under construction near 235 East 42nd Street — the former headquarters of Pfizer, located between Grand Central Terminal and the United Nations headquarters.
The building sits between Second and Third avenues. Most of 42nd and 43rd Streets, between First and Third Avenues, have been closed to pedestrians and vehicles.
This post has been updated with additional details.
PIX11 anchors from Manhattan street after high-rise evacuation forces staff out
When reports first came in about an unstable building in Midtown Manhattan, the local TV station PIX11 was in the best position to cover the news, because its studio is directly across the street.
But the station was ultimately too close to the story; it had to halt live coverage when authorities evacuated its building around 11:15 a.m. ET.
“It was a very orderly evacuation,” morning anchor Dan Mannarino said on air.
PIX11 simulcast the NewsNation cable channel for about an hour until it was able to resume what Mannarino called a “barebones” live local broadcast.
The station sent reporters outside and narrated the emergency response as it unfolded. Mannarino anchored from the middle of Second Avenue, which is closed to traffic, and said thousands of New Yorkers have been evacuated from the area due to safety concerns.
By early afternoon, the station had cobbled together an anchor location for its shows on the street, with multiple staffers holding lights and cameras. A makeshift control room was being run out of the back of an SUV.
"Collapse zone" created around Manhattan high-rise building
Buildings and surrounding areas around the unstable building have been evacuated and a “collapse zone” has been established, New York City Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said.
The concern, however, is for a “localized collapse” not a total collapse, FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said.
Crews were adding 11 floors on top of a 22-floor part of the building
The site of the unstable high-rise in Manhattan has two parts: a taller, 37-floor section and a 22-floor section, New York City Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said.
The shorter section is under construction. “They were adding 11 floors above the 22 floors,” Tigani said.
There would be "localized collapse" if Manhattan building fell, FDNY official says
FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said if the Midtown Manhattan building were to collapse, it would likely be a “localized collapse.”
“The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel frame building, so it would not be a total collapse; it would be more of a localized collapse,” Esposito said at a news conference Tuesday. “But that remains our concern: that it’s moving.”
Asked if that means the building would crumble onto itself, Esposito said, “possibly.”
Officials said the building is not yet stable and that experts have seen it continue to move after two structural columns buckled earlier Tuesday.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the concern is that since personnel have been on site, “we have seen continued shift of the structure.”
“The building has continued to move since we've been on scene," FDNY fire chief says
New York City Fire Department Chief John Esposito said the building “has continued to move” since officials arrived on scene.
“It’s a very serious situation,” John Esposito added.
Esposito said authorities have prepared for a potential collapse
“We have a frozen zone and a collapse zone set up, and we are working with the Buildings Department and the building engineer to make sure that this is safe for all people and for all New Yorkers,” he said.
Esposito added that since the building has a steel frame, “it would not be a total collapse.”
“It would be a more localized collapse, but that remains our concern, that it’s moving,” he told reporters.
New York City Fire Department commissioner Lillian Bonsignore confirmed that an assessment was done “and the building was determined to be unstable.”
This post has been updated with additional comments from Esposito.
"The building remains unstable," Mamdani says
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned that the high-rise’s structural integrity is unstable.
“The building remains unstable,” Mamdani said during a news conference. “Since arriving on scene we’ve witnessed additional movement in one of the compromised columns.”
Engineers investigating structural integrity of building with FDNY drones, mayor says
Engineers with the New York City Department of Buildings are investigating the structural integrity of the Manhattan high-rise with Fire Department of New York drones, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during a news conference Tuesday.
Nine nearby buildings evacuated as a precaution
Nine buildings in the area surrounding the former Pfizer headquarters building, between Grand Central Terminal and the United Nations headquarters, have been evacuated as a precaution after structural columns on the building’s 21st floor buckled, according to the FDNY.
The list of buildings includes the following:
- 815 2nd Ave
- 217 E 43rd St
- 211 E 43rd St
- 210 E 43rd St
- 231 E 43rd St
- 225 E 43rd St
- 235 E 42nd St
- 235 E 43rd St
- 681-701 3rd Ave AKA 201-207 3rd Ave
Dispatch audio of FDNY crews responding to scene in Manhattan
Crews with the New York City Fire Department can be heard on dispatch audio from Broadcastify.com responding to the incident in Midtown Manhattan where columns in a high-rise building buckled.
Listen to the audio here:
“We’re getting reports from the construction that two columns buckled on the 21st floor; have all special units continue in,” one first responder said.
Another first responder said that multiple crews were at the building assessing the situation.
“The construction company has done a roll call; all construction workers are accounted for at this time,” the first responder added.
2 workers from the construction site say the project added additional floors
Two men scheduled to work on the upper floors of the construction project showed up this morning but were turned around, the workers told CNN.
The workers declined to share their names. One of the men said the project has added additional floors to the top, and he was set to work on the 35th floor this morning. But just as he was about to get into the construction elevator shortly before 8:30 a.m., a staff member turned him around, he said.
The second worker said the “problem is on the back of the building.” He told CNN that nothing is visible on the side of the building that is facing 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue.
“It’s all happening towards the back of the building,” he said.
That worker said he was also evacuated. He said he works on the periphery of the building – not inside – and confirmed the project has added floors on top of already existing ones.
