Construction crews were set to work all of Wednesday to prop up the Manhattan high-rise that suddenly buckled — as four nearby buildings remained under evacuation orders, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
Temporary shoring and beams were completely installed on the afflicted East 42nd Street building’s 18th through 23rd floors during the morning, Mamdani told reporters.
He said crews were doing the same on the 17th through 24th floors.
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“They’re going to be working through the day to get all the way up to the roof and all the way down to floor nine,” he said, adding, “It is a 37-floor building.”
The harrowing situation at 235 E. 42nd St. – the former Pfizer headquarters being converted from offices to apartments – was discovered Tuesday on its 21st floor.
The under-renovation structure was quickly evacuated, as were a swath of streets and several surrounding buildings – and a “frozen zone” was established that barred pedestrian and foot traffic below.
Officials shrank the frozen zone Wednesday to East 42nd and 43rd Streets between Second and Third avenues, but kept four buildings under a full vacate order, Mamdani said.
Here’s the latest on the evacuated Midtown building in danger of a ‘localized collapse’:
One more building is under partial vacate order for a ground-floor restaurant, he said.
“I want to confirm for all New Yorkers that there has been no additional movement of the structure since yesterday morning,” Mamdani said. “This continues to be monitored as that emergency work is underway.”
It’s not known what caused the structural failure. The city Department of Buildings was investigating.
