Buckling Manhattan high-rise deemed 'stable' for now after evacuations ordered [View all]

Source: NBC News

U.S. NEWS
Buckling Manhattan high-rise deemed ‘stable’ for now after evacuations ordered

The building, formerly Pfizer’s global headquarters, is being converted into a luxury rental complex. It was evacuated, along with neighboring buildings, and no injuries were reported.

July 7, 2026, 12:08 PM EDT / Updated July 8, 2026, 5:23 AM EDT
By Matt Lavietes and Emilie Ikeda

An unoccupied Manhattan high-rise that is under construction was deemed “stable” late Tuesday after being at risk of collapse and prompting nearby evacuations, city officials said.

The area surrounding the 37-story building, in midtown Manhattan near Grand Central Terminal, was evacuated after two structural support columns on its 21st floor began to buckle around 8 a.m. No injuries were reported.

“I can say right now the building is stable,” Ahmed Tigani, the city’s buildings commissioner, told reporters during a Tuesday night news conference. Some evacuation orders had been lifted, Tigani said, adding “we feel confident in the emergency plan that we have.” … He added that the building was being monitored from the inside and outside and still had not moved.

“Right now, we have been in a consistent, stable and safe situation,” Tigani said. “We have been able to bring in a plan and materials to stabilize the impacted floors and [are] looking to extend that stability plan to other parts of the building.”

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Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/buckling-beams-manhattan-high-rise-construction-trigger-mass-evacuatio-rcna353343

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It’s too early in the morning for me to put on my official internet junior structural engineer hat, so I can’t say how the work is going to proceed. From the pictures that were online yesterday, I would say not that one column in particular “began to buckle,” but that it had buckled.