What to KnowTwo structural support beams on an under-construction building in Manhattan started buckling Tuesday morning, triggering a large emergency response, officials say.New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says engineers are working to stabilize the structure, using drones for monitoring.The nea rly 37-story tower is part of the city’s largest office-to-residential conversion project, with over 1,600 planned units. The Manhattan high-rise deemed unstable and responsible for a significant evacuation of several midtown blocks has stopped moving, allowing for a team of city inspectors to enter and inspect the damage, officials said Tuesday. The building has not moved since 12 p.m., according to two sources briefed on the situation. A team of inspectors from the DOB (Department of Buildings) and the FDNY will enter to determine if “shoring efforts are safe to begin,” a city official said around 2:30 p.m. Two structural support beams on the 21st floor of a 37-story under-construction building in midtown started buckling Tuesday morning. It’s located in a busy corridor about a block from the landmark Chrysler Building and between Grand Central Terminal and the United Nations headquarters. The FDNY said it got a call around 8 a.m. about bricks falling from the building at 235 East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues. The NYPD says it got a 911 call about the incident less than 15 minutes later. When cops got to the scene, the NYPD says officers were told that construction workers on the 21st floor of the commercial building saw the columns beginning to collapse. It wasn’t clear how many workers were in the building at the time. An evacuation was ordered out of caution. Neighboring buildings were also evacuated — a growing number of them, as the response escalated. A nearby school with about 400 children was among the evacuated buildings. The Department of Buildings said at least nine other buildings had been evacuated as a precaution. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a “frozen zone” around the building for vehicles and pedestrians. He said 40th to 45th streets is closed from First to Third avenues. It wasn’t clear when the area might reopen or when evacuees might return to their homes. Mamdani said engineers are working on ways to shore up the damaged floors and using drones to monitor the building, so that they don’t have to send people in. “The building remains unstable,” he said. “This is an extremely serious situation.” Fire Department Chief John Esposito added that the building has continued to move as emergency officials have been on scene. Nearby streets were closed to people and vehicles. “It is not yet stable,” Esposito said. “It is still a very serious and dangerous situation.” The building, formerly home to Pfizer’s global headquarters, is being converted into a 1,500-unit luxury rental complex. The Department of Buildings says it has an active permit for construction. The office-to-residential conversion has been billed as the largest in the city’s history, according to Gensler, the architectural firm leading the project. The planned complex with more than 1,600 units includes adding more than a dozen stories atop the building’s original tower. It also involves redesigning an adjoining tower. Raw footage from inside, taken by a construction worker, showed crumbling steel beams on the 21st floor. A spokesperson for Gensler did not immediately return a voicemail and email seeking comment. The agency says it has inspectors on site. Both it and the NYPD describe their investigations as ongoing. DOB structural engineers are on scene investigating reports of potential structural issues at 235 East 42 street, Manhattan.First responders have advised commuters avoid the area and use alternate routes.More to come. https://t.co/hdx7BTewrM— Department of Buildings (@NYC_Buildings) July 7, 2026 More news British Royal Family 5 hours ago Judge dismisses Prince Harry's privacy invasion lawsuit against U.K. publisher 2026 World Cup 7 hours ago Kylian Mbappé fires back at Paraguayan senator over racist remarks: ‘Despicable woman' Recalls Jul 6 Popular high-end shampoo sold at retailers and salons nationwide recalled for bacteria This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less