Evacuated residents and hotel guests are allowed to return amid work on damaged NYC high-rise

Several blocks of midtown Manhattan have been evacuated as structural columns of a high-rise construction site appear to buckle and crack.

NEW YORK -- The streets around a midtown Manhattan high-rise where structural damage forced evacuations gradually returned to life Wednesday, as residents and hotel guests were allowed back into nearby buildings, and workers fashioned temporary fixes to shore up the damage.

After crews worked through the night to stabilize a section of the building where beams had buckled and floors had sagged, Mayor Zohran Mamdani sought to reassure wary New Yorkers, saying no more movement had been detected in the massive office-to-apartment conversion project at Pfizer’s former headquarters near Grand Central Terminal.

But four other area buildings remained off limits, and the city will conduct a broader inquiry into what went wrong and what can be done to prevent a more devastating incident such as a collapse, the mayor vowed.

“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 clearly a breakdown in that process.”

Buckled beams and sagging floors triggered collapse concerns

Authorities responding to emergency calls at the building discovered two mangled support beams and sagging floors on the 21st floor early Tuesday, triggering mass evacuations and street closures in a bustling area not far from the Grand Central transit hub and the Chrysler Building.

In the initial hours, officials believed the steel-framed building, which was empty other than the workers, wasn’t necessarily at risk of a total collapse, but “more of a localized collapse,” as Fire Chief John Esposito described it.

On-site contractors were eventually allowed to reenter the building late Tuesday to do the emergency repairs after city officials did a floor-by-floor inspection and found encouraging signs.

Residents and hotel guests return as evacuation orders are lifted

Sally Grant and Margaret Clark were among those Wednesday waiting to be let back into the Hampton Inn near the damaged former Pfizer building.

They had traveled from Scotland to see Bon Jovi perform at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, but were evacuated and told to leave their belongings, including their credit cards, passports and medication.

“They could have given us five minutes to grab our belongings, you know, instead of just saying everybody out, everybody out,” Clark said. “We’ve been left with nothing. We slept in the streets last night. The police wouldn’t help us. It’s been awful. Absolutely it’s ruined our holiday.”

There were signs of things returning to normal Wednesday on the streets surrounding the construction site, with people walking dogs, pushing strollers and riding bikes.

But gawkers also paused to point and take photos of the now infamous hulking glass-and-steel tower, and some major streets remained closed, to the frustration of pedestrians and drivers.

Elinor Ruskin, 94, was among those redirected by police after trying to get through a closed block. She took it in stride.

“These things happen. I don’t know if they will catch the mistake or what they will do,” she said. “Anyway, you know, this is New York City.”

Repairs are ongoing

Temporary shoring and beams were installed throughout the 37-story building as crews made their way to the top.

Photos shared on social media by the city’s Department of Buildings showed multiple steel rods inserted side-by-side next to one badly bent column.

The department said the emergency work is being supervised by the owner’s engineer and an independent, third-party engineering firm hired by the owner.

Once the emergency repairs are complete, Mamdani said city building officials will conduct a “rigorous assessment” to ensure the plans and the site are fully compliant with all codes before any non-emergency work proceeds.

New York, along with other major cities, has for years been pursuing ambitious overhauls to transform underused office space into residential buildings, in part to help struggling business districts and take strain off tight housing markets in need of more apartments.

Mamdani, a Democrat, told reporters Wednesday that he considers the conversions “part of our answer to the housing crisis,” but added that the projects must be done “safely and in a way that is fully accountable.”

Future of project remains uncertain

While the cause of the structural issues remains under investigation, unionized construction workers took the opportunity to slam the developers for using non-union workers. They staged a protest, complete with a large inflatable rat, near the site Wednesday.

The renovation project is billed as the largest office-to-residential conversion in the city’s history, creating some 1,600 units of housing. The plans call for transforming a pair of office buildings by adding more than a dozen storeys atop one tower and redesigning the other.

Spokespersons for MetroLoft, the project developer, didn’t respond to requests for comment Wednesday, but the company has stressed that the building is not at risk of collapse. Nathan Berman, the firm’s founder, though, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the added weight from widening the top 15 or so floors of the building likely caused the damage.

Antoine Mouthon, who works nearby at the United Nations, says he’s been skittish around the construction site after seeing the aftermath of a large sheet of metal falling from the building last August.

“A whole year after I avoided that street,” he said Wednesday. “I thought they cleaned up their act.”

Another passerby, Sabrina DeRizzio, wondered why developers keep trying to turn outdated office towers into modern housing, as she lives in one herself.

“It’s not the best,” she said, adding that it’s impossible to hang anything on the concrete walls and the unit never feels properly insulated. “The infrastructure is just not the same.”

By Philip Marcelo and Anthony Izaguirre, The Associated Press

Associated Press reporter Michael R. Sisak contributed to this story.