this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026

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‘Buckling' beams at Manhattan high-rise under construction trigger mass evacuation (www.nbcnewyork.com)

submitted 3 days ago by FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world to c/latestagecapitalism@lemmy.world

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Two structural support beams on the 21st floor of a 37-story under-construction building in Manhattan started buckling Tuesday morning, triggering a mass evacuation, street closures and a large emergency response, officials say.

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.

Raw footage from inside, taken by a construction worker, showed crumbling steel beams on the 21st floor.

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[–] potter2010@lemmy.ca 27 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Not to defend developers, but to everyone bringing up cheap materials and assuming the developers were hoping to duck out before issues arose, if you read the article you'll see the building was a preexisting office building being converted to residential units. Not a new build.

The current renovations likely removed some needed support and the remaining structure couldn't handle it. Mistake (engineering calculation) or greed (removing more than stated to include more units) are both possible.

[–] Canajan@piefed.ca 7 points 3 days ago

You’re the best, thanks. I suspect a lot of us don’t read the actual article and then comment without all the info.

Ya, converting an office building to residential is a massive undertaking, looks like some calculations were missed, or the building had preexisting issues.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 4 points 3 days ago

Per NYCBC (up until maybe soon), you have to provide window access to a various list of rooms, which is why residential skyscrapers are usually shaped differently than commercial skyscrapers. To make it fit code, they would have needed to remove beams and columns to fit in the required air shaft which would provide the windows needed.

A few things that could have gone wrong off the top of my head but is not a complete list:

The demolition procedure had issues/wasn't followed. That should include allowed construction loads on each floor. That only one floor saw buckling could be a sign that it was overloaded with debris.
Someone messed up the calculations. The two possible issues could have been either that the slenderness of some elements were miscalculated or there was a major storm that hit the area recently, and the building in the condition it was in didn't have the necessary lateral resistance it needed.

That said, neither the developer or the contractor would have a vested interest in removing more than the bare minimum allowed. And, while steel is recyclable, it is usually far cheaper to leave it in place

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Another "luxury" rental complex in process. I'd bet the developers 100% knew about the structural issues and just assumed it would be 10-20 years before they became so readily apparent and wanted to cash in and then cash out.

But whoever hid it should be behind bars.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 3 points 3 days ago

An issue this bad 10 to 20 years could still kill a developer, contractor, or engineering company.

My guess is that there will be someone found at fault and it could include jail time, but a large part of the issue would lie in incompetence instead of adject malice.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago

There is an engineer in a manager's face right now saying "I told you this was going to happen."

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

We have codes and inspections to prevent this sort of thing.

My guess is corruption somewhere. Maybe the steel is not what was promised? Someone will get a sternly written clay tablet.

Also, if I saw steel beams collapsing in a building, the last thing I'm thinking about is pulling my phone out to film it. Maybe I'm just too old to understand that urge.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

With you on the phone thing for sure. Just wild.

[–] prex@aussie.zone 1 points 3 days ago

Ea-nāṣir strikes again.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago

I guess once Pfizer left, the erection started to weaken faster than expected.

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer_Building

The former headquarter consists out of 2 buildings, a 10 story one from 1905 and a 32 story one from 1960. Pfizer was using both since 1974 and moved out in 2023. Now with the conversion to residential, the builders were adding 19 stories to the lowest building + renovating the taller one.

Based on where the bricks were falling, I think the buckling is occurring in the taller 1960s building, which should just be a non structural renovation/conversion ... strange. My guess is that they overloaded the top floors by storing building materials there, but this is just a wild guess.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

"What do you mean 'This wall is load bearing'?"