Pfizer Building Developer Says Buckled Columns Were ‘Freak Accident’ Caused by Weight of New Addition

The developer responsible for a Midtown Manhattan construction project that had to be evacuated on Tuesday claims the threat of a building collapse was "blown a little bit out of proportion."

Workers converting the Pfizer Building into a luxury residential tower were forced to evacuate on Tuesday after columns on the 21st floor began to buckle. The building’s developer, Nathan Berman of MetroLoft, described it as a "freak accident" triggered by the weight of a new addition to the building. 

"This was well designed and approved by structural engineers,” Berman told The Real Deal. “This is a freak accident that something occurred with these two specific columns that either were not reinforced or were not reinforced sufficiently, and they gave way. That’s it. There’s no mystery, and there’s no
magic."

The shocking incident unfolded at 235 East 42nd St. on the site of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's former headquarters, a 1.3 million-square-foot complex spanning a full block, which Metro Loft is now converting into around 1,600 residential units.

The construction project encompasses two formerly separate buildings: a 33-story building built in 1960, and a 10-story building erected in 1905 that is being expanded to 29 floors.

On Tuesday morning, construction crews were working on the 21st floor of the larger building when they noticed the columns buckling.

The FDNY was called in and discovered sagging floors on the upper levels and two buckled support columns on the 21st floor. As a precautionary measure, city officials ordered the evacuation of construction workers from the site and cleared nine nearby buildings.

Thankfully, there were no injuries and no debris fell from the building. The FDNY said the building was not at risk of a full collapse.

The building project has 178 Department of Buildings violations and 45 complaints, including one related to a failure to report an incident that resulted in a fatality or injury.

The current vacate order says that "observed structural steel elements at upper floors have failed, compromising the structural stability of the building."

The developer Berman said the added weight from new additions to the upper stories likely led to columns bending.

“It’s very simple,” Berman told the Wall Street Journal. “You add more load to something that can’t support it, it’ll give way, and that’s what happened. And now it just needs to be fixed.” 

He said it was unclear why those particular columns had been affected, but suggested they may not have been sufficiently reinforced to handle the additional load from the widening of the top 15 floors.

However, the developer denied that the problem could have toppled the building in a full collapse.

“It’s too big of a building,” he told the Journal. “Ninety-five percent of the building, the structure is sound and intact."