Unstable New York City skyscraper sparks major Manhattan evacuation

NEW YORK: Emergency crews evacuated a busy Manhattan street block during the Tuesday (Jul 7) 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 overhaul at the 37-storey tower.

The developer insisted there was no risk of the entire building collapsing. 

But city officials warned the situation remained serious as they worked to determine if the structure was safe enough to enter to perform remedial work.

"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.

No one has been injured and all the workers in the building repurposing work are accounted for, the mayor said, adding that the project engineer was working with structural engineers to develop plans to shore up the tower.

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.

"SUPER DANGEROUS"

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, who declined to give his full name, 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 football fans from Manhattan to MetLife stadium in New Jersey. It was not active on Tuesday in the absence of any matches there.

Construction worker Fernando Sanchez, 50, told AFP that "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 sq ft 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.

"We want to confirm that the affected area is a small section of one of the two buildings on this site," said developer Metroloft.

"As the (fire department) spokesperson noted, the entire building itself is not at risk of collapse."