Construction workers at 235 East 42nd Street noticed cracks around 8 a.m. Tuesday and then saw structural support beams begin to buckle on the 21st and 22nd floors, setting off an evacuation that spread beyond the building and into the surrounding block. Several floors of the Midtown Manhattan tower were caving in as crews got out on their own, and officials said the building had begun to give way under the stress.
The building stands at the corner of East 42nd Street and Second Avenue in Midtown East, where the former Pfizer headquarters is being converted to residential use. What made the scene jarring was the scale of the response against the fact pattern: no injuries were reported, all workers were accounted for, and the alarm was raised before anyone was hurt.
Zohran Mamdani said a school with about 400 children was also evacuated, adding that nearby tall buildings were being cleared as well. The FDNY said 231 East 43rd Street, the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central, was evacuated too, and guests were taken out of their rooms as crews widened the safety perimeter.
Traffic controls followed fast. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic was shut on East 42nd Street between Second and Third avenues, and the FDNY asked for East 44th Street to be closed between Second and Third avenues as well. In a district where one blocked avenue can ripple through the morning, the evacuation spread from the tower to the blocks around it.
The central question is not whether the building was taken seriously; it was. The unanswered part is what caused the beams on the 21st and 22nd floors to buckle in the first place, and how long 235 East 42nd Street, nearby buildings and the street closures will remain off limits. For now, the 38-story building stays at the center of a widening safety review, with the damage visible and the timetable for reopening still unclear.
