NEW YORK | 219/229 East 42nd Street (Pfizer) | 348 & ? FT | 29 & 33 FLOORS

[Crawford]

It's terrible, but some of the headlines are sensationalist. The official report is there are some high beams bending, and the possibility of a partial collapse. I'm not an engineer, but I assume this has some sort of fix.

Of course, the news outlets run the headlines that that building itself could collapse, which does not sound likely.

[Busy Bee]

I wouldn't want to go up there with a bunch of new structural steel to weld into place even with a hundred engineers telling me it's fine. Talk about hazard pay.

[Zapatan]

Horrifying, the image of the massive steel beam bending is almost disturbing.

Source: Reddit via the NYYimby thread.



Tear it down and make it a (very well built) supertall I say

[Busy Bee]

Cart in front of horse time, but I don't think many here would be disappointed if the building had to be taken down and a top-shelf tower go up in its' place. That being said, it's a little funny this was ever pitched as a conversion to be begin with at a site like this. And with that also being said, I genuinely hope there isn't some elaborate 1970s South Bronx landlord funny business going on here.

[ChiND]

Fortunately, no one was hurt. Absolutely no one will want to move into that building.

[The New York Lion]

1. Make sure nobody hurt.

2. Demolish it.

3. Supertall time.

[NYguy]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...r-downplays-concerns-over-unstable-tower

Developer Downplays Structural Concerns at ‘Unstable’ Midtown Manhattan Tower


By Natalie Wong
July 7, 2026

The structural concerns that led New York City officials to shut down a midtown-Manhattan high-rise and evacuate surrounding buildings are “very small,” said Nathan Berman, the chief executive officer of Metro Loft, which is leading the project to convert the historic Pfizer building into apartments.

Two columns in the northwest corner of the building at 235 East 42nd Street hadn’t been adequately reinforced, he said, causing the supports to buckle and the floor to sag. By midafternoon, city inspectors and the building’s contractor had entered the building to determine whether it was safe to begin shoring efforts.

The events will set back the timeline for Metro Loft and co-developer David Werner Real Estate Investments, which planned to open the building to tenants this year. The project, with roughly 1,600 apartments, a rooftop pool and a fitness center, has been a leading example of the efforts to repurpose fallow office space for residential use.

“People are smart enough to understand that this is something that’s happening during construction,” he said in an interview. “Construction mishaps happen regularly. Those are risks of construction, ground up or conversion.”

The developer reiterated that “at no time was the building at risk of collapsing,” nor did anything fall from the building.

Metro Loft will work closely with the New York City building department to see whether the contractors and subcontractors followed all of the approved plans, Berman said. “We will investigate to make sure that the reinforcement that was required in places was in fact placed in the right place, in the right amount,” he said. “Once that’s done, we can basically start correcting.”

[Busy Bee]

That there is the sound of collective disappointment among SSPers.

[Hudson11]

The developer is, of course, downplaying the risk on their investment and there is a whole lot of cognitive dissonance in that article. The reality is that the tower has been assessed as unstable and the risk remains.

This is one part of the "very small" structural concerns. It's a floor to floor steel column twisted and almost severed. We are lucky what happened in New Orleans didnt happen to this building.


FDNY

[mrnyc]

oooh boyo boy --- that looks awful -- looks like they have to tear it down immediately.

i was literally just at lex/42nd going to grand central, but walking down south on lex -- did not get to 42nd st or notice any ruckus, but that is further east.

[Zapatan]

It would likely only partially collapse given how many of those beams there probably are in that building. I guess that's a minor silver lining here if there is one.

Still... scary stuff.

[mrnyc]

pat from ny1 explains the pfizer troubles —

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DagfCggpwLD/?igsh=MXdraGJ3aXM2ZHpxaw==

[Keano]

Originally Posted by Crawford

It's terrible, but some of the headlines are sensationalist. The official report is there are some high beams bending, and the possibility of a partial collapse. I'm not an engineer, but I assume this has some sort of fix.

Of course, the news outlets run the headlines that that building itself could collapse, which does not sound likely.

Yep.

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/other/bui...d=6a4d285ea2fc4160b0afc5eeffa2334a&ei=16

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

That there is the sound of collective disappointment among SSPers.

I think they should demolish the building. I certainly would not want to live in it or even go near it. While it is certainly not like the Twin Towers, is the memory of their collapse forgotten already?

[BuildThemTaller]

Originally Posted by DCReid

I think they should demolish the building. I certainly would not want to live in it or even go near it. While it is certainly not like the Twin Towers, is the memory of their collapse forgotten already?

It's not like a plane flew into this building. That's a strange comparison.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by BuildThemTaller

It's not like a plane flew into this building. That's a strange comparison.

i notice one of the common tropes in social media about this is bringing up 9/11.

we get what we paid for in news coverage.

[Busy Bee]

Goofy. The appropriate comparison would be Viet Nam.

[Crawford]

This is a multi-billion project with multiple interconnected buildings and well over 2,000 apartments in total (all buildings). I'm pretty sure they just fix the issue rather than demolishing and starting over.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were back to work in a few days.

[Busy Bee]

In May 2025, Metro Loft Developers and David Werner Real Estate Investments secured a $720 million loan to fund the project.

With the developers saying with the caveat of keeping total cost under $1 billion.

The former Pfizer headquarters at 219–235 East 42nd Street in Midtown East, Manhattan was sold in July 2018 to David Werner for $357 million.

I wonder how much they've already spent on the project including holding onto it for 8 years and whether they're working the numbers to see what makes the most sense here.

[pianowizard]

The sag looks quite obvious in this photo:


Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1473832958122602&set=a.614982084007698