Manhattan High-Rise Stabilized After Collapse Risk

An under-construction Manhattan high-rise at risk of collapse was stabilized late Tuesday, with some evacuations of nearby buildings lifted. "We’ve been monitoring the building for many hours and have not seen any movement," stated Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, during a news conference Tuesday. By nighttime, residents were permitted to return to several of the seven buildings that had been evacuated as a precautionary measure. The situation arose after columns were observed buckling on Tuesday morning at the 1970s-era building, which is undergoing conversion into luxury apartments. Construction workers and individuals in adjacent buildings, including a school, diplomatic offices, and hotels, were evacuated after firefighters were dispatched around 8 a.m. Mayor Zohran Mamdani characterized the event as "an extremely serious situation." City officials conducted floor-by-floor inspections and found no further movement in the damaged columns, authorizing on-site contractors to proceed with emergency repairs, according to his office. Workers were observed shoring up the damage inside the glass-and-steel structure on Tuesday evening, with this work expected to continue and affect traffic and pedestrian flow near Grand Central train station. Fears of a potential collapse had prompted the evacuation orders. The building, formerly the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Pfizer, is located near landmarks such as the Chrysler Building and the United Nations headquarters. Leila Bozorg, a deputy mayor, noted it was "encouraging" that the building showed no signs of shifting as officials ascended past the damaged floors to the 37th floor, the building's highest point. A visibly bent structural column was visible through a large glass window on the 21st floor from the street below.