Unstable skyscraper sparks major Manhattan evacuation

NEW YORK: Emergency services evacuated a busy Manhattan street block during the Tuesday morning rush hour after structural columns buckled inside a skyscraper undergoing construction work, officials said.

The former head office of the drug giant Pfizer, near Grand Central station and the United Nations headquarters, is being converted from offices into apartments in a major transformation project at the tower.

“Two structural columns have buckled, in addition to multiple cracks and sagging floors. The building remains unstable. Since arriving on scene, we have witnessed additional movement in one of the compromised columns,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

“This is an extremely serious situation,” Mamdani said.

“I am grateful to report there have been no injuries at this time, and that every worker has been accounted for,” he said, adding that the project engineer was working with structural engineers to develop plans to shore up the structure.

Emergency struts and beams would be brought in to strengthen the building, officials said.

Nearby hotels, businesses, apartments and a school were evacuated and streets were closed as a precaution as police and firefighters swarmed the area, AFP correspondents saw.

A drone was deployed to allow officials to assess the extent of the damage.

The mayor said New Yorkers will be allowed to “return back into these buildings when we are fully confident that they are safe for them to do so.”

Local cable channel PIX11 was forced to abandon its studio near the affected building mid-broadcast following an evacuation order.

Clifford Johnsen, a representative of the Steamfitters Local 638 union, said that the addition of new floors on top of the existing office structure had put pressure on the building’s supports.

“They keep adding. Now you put more weight, and when you put more weight, that’s what’s going to happen when it’s not engineered correctly or installed incorrectly,” he said.

“I’ve been in construction 21 years, and I’ve never seen a beam bend in half — so this is super dangerous.”

Construction worker Eddie, 28, told AFP he was evacuated from the site and that he “was down below and I saw everyone starting to come down. Just then, they let me know that a column was broken.”

Video shared by construction workers seemed to show buckled columns within the building site.

The edifice sits on a public transport corridor used to ferry World Cup soccer fans from Manhattan to MetLife stadium in New Jersey, but was not active Tuesday in the absence of any matches there.

Construction worker Fernando Sanchez, 50, told AFP “the beams from around the 21st to 25th floor… bent and part of it collapsed a bit and everyone had to get out quickly. All of us.

“All the people evacuated on this side and we are waiting for new orders,” he added.

The project will total 1.3 million square feet and bring to the market approximately 1,600 luxury rental apartments, according to developers.

Upon completion, which had been scheduled for early 2027, it would be New York City’s largest ever office to residential conversion.

The developer did not respond to a request for comment.