Emergency work continued Wednesday at a massive under-construction Midtown Manhattan high-rise after buckling columns and sagging floors triggered evacuations, street closures, and fears of a possible collapse.

The building, located at 235 East 42nd Street near Second Avenue, is the former headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. It is currently being converted into a massive residential complex in what developers have described as the largest office-to-residential conversion in New York City history.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that the building has had no additional movement since Tuesday morning and was deemed stable late Tuesday after crews worked through the night to install emergency shoring.

“The building is stable and yet we are going to continue to prioritize the safety of all in that immediate area,” Mamdani said.

Temporary supports and beams have already been installed on multiple floors, including the 18th through 23rd floors, where the most serious damage was found. Crews are expected to continue adding supports throughout the day, working upward toward the roof and downward toward the ninth floor.

Despite the progress, at least four nearby buildings remained under evacuation orders Wednesday, and several surrounding Midtown streets remained closed. A nearby school, the Israeli consulate, hotels, and other buildings had been evacuated after the structural emergency was first reported Tuesday morning.

Authorities were called to the site after construction workers noticed structural issues. Firefighters and inspectors found two badly bent support columns and sagging floors on the 21st floor, along with cracks and other signs of distress.

The FDNY said the concern was not necessarily a total building collapse, but rather a localized collapse in the damaged section. Still, the risk was serious enough for officials to clear a large area around the building, creating a “frozen zone” spanning several blocks.

Only construction workers were inside the building at the time, and no injuries were reported.

Once emergency stabilization is completed, the city’s Department of Buildings will conduct what officials described as a rigorous assessment before any non-emergency construction work is allowed to resume.

The developer, MetroLoft, said the structure was never at risk of collapse and insisted the issue was localized. The company said the affected area involves fewer than 30 apartments out of more than 1,600 planned units.

“Our team worked through the night stabilizing the affected columns, and the DOB has confirmed the structure is now stable,” MetroLoft said in a statement. “We have identified the issue and developed a clear plan to fix it.”

MetroLoft added that it plans to fully rebuild the affected portion of the building while continuing the broader project, saying the issue is not expected to delay completion.

However, structural experts said the damaged columns and sagging floors will likely require extensive repairs, including removal and replacement of compromised structural elements.

Experts told local outlets that buckled steel columns typically cannot simply be pushed back into place. Once steel columns bend and floors crack or sag, those elements usually lose their structural capacity and must be replaced.

One structural engineer said the damaged columns may now be carrying only a fraction of the load they were designed to support, placing additional stress on nearby columns and beams. Another expert said the emergency stabilization itself is a delicate process, requiring engineers to determine whether workers can safely enter the building to install supports.

The likely cause remains under investigation. MetroLoft founder Nathan Berman told The Wall Street Journal that added weight from work on the upper floors may have contributed to the damage, particularly as the project involves widening the top portion of the tower and adding new stories.

The ambitious project calls for transforming a pair of 1970s-era office buildings into approximately 1,600 luxury rental apartments. Plans include adding more than a dozen stories to one tower and redesigning another.

City records show the project had previously received several safety violations, including violations related to falling glass and metal and an incident in which a worker fell from a ladder.

By Wednesday, some residents and hotel guests were allowed back into nearby buildings, and parts of the frozen zone were reduced. Still, city officials said closures and evacuations will remain in place until inspectors are fully satisfied that the area is safe.

The building sits in one of Manhattan’s busiest corridors, near Grand Central Terminal, the Chrysler Building, and the United Nations.

Officials said public safety remains the top priority as crews continue shoring up the structure and investigators work to determine exactly what went wrong.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)