The building at the center of this week’s Midtown scare is the former Pfizer world headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street: a 33-story tower built in 1960 that, alongside its neighbor at 219 East 42nd, is being converted by Metro Loft and David Werner Real Estate Investments into roughly 1,600 apartments, the largest office-to-residential conversion in U.S. history.
On Tuesday morning, the FDNY received reports of bricks falling from the building; inspectors found two support columns buckling on the 21st floor and floors sagging up through the 26th. Nine surrounding buildings were evacuated, a “frozen zone” was established from First to Third Avenues, and by Tuesday night, crews had begun installing emergency shoring. No injuries were reported. Metro Loft’s Nathan Berman attributed the buckling to added weight from new floors; while the site had racked up seven DOB violations and roughly $15,000 in fines over the past year for falling debris.
Forensic and structural engineer Joseph Di Pompeo, who has more than 25 years of experience in structural engineering and forensic investigation and has testified as an expert witness before planning and zoning boards, and in New Jersey and New York state and federal courts, said the type of failure visible in photos and video doesn’t support a steel-quality explanation—which is what the FDNY first said at a press conference yesterday.
“There is no material strength number in the formula” for column buckling, he said. “It could be good, it could be bad, it could be terrible, but it still wouldn’t affect what happened here.” Buckling, he said, is governed entirely by two things: how long a column runs between braces, and how much load it’s carrying.
That distinction, Di Pompeo said, points instead toward a loading error: Either the engineering didn’t properly account for the weight being added during the conversion, or construction sequencing put more load on a column than it was ever meant to carry.
“It’s got to be one of those two things,” he said.
Metro Loft’s own account lines up with that framing. Founder Nathan Berman told The Wall Street Journal additional weight added during construction on top of the building likely caused the two columns to buckle, calling the incident “nothing more than a typical construction mishap” and, later, a “freak accident.” He told reporters the project overall was “well engineered, well thought through, and well executed, with the exception of those two columns that could not tak[e the load],” and said the affected area was limited to a small section of one building.
Other conversion work happening in New York City
There’s also a lot of conversion work happening across the city all at once. In 2023, nearly 80 office buildings in New York had already been converted to residences over the prior two decades, with roughly 200 more potentially in play. That pipeline has grown substantially since: Developers are now on track to start 9.5 million square feet of new office-to-residential conversions in 2026 alone, more than double last year’s pace and nearly twice the city’s previous peak in 2008, with New York leading every U.S. metro at more than 16,000 units currently in conversion.
Goldman Sachs estimated in 2024 office prices would need to fall nearly 50% for conversions to be financially viable at scale, and one commercial real estate veteran told Fortune 30% of office buildings are “basically worth nothing” and will simply need to be torn down rather than converted.
With that volume, Di Pompeo said, minor structural issues during construction are common, but they just don’t typically make news.
“A lot of failures happen during construction,” he said. “There’s a lot of failures that happen during construction that nobody hears about, because it’s not a collapse. It gets fixed, and everybody moves on.”
He was skeptical the building’s prior violations tell the real story, either.
“Every building in New York has one,” he said, noting that most citations—like the loose debris incidents on this site—have little bearing on the type of column failure reported this week.
This week’s alarming incident in Midtown Manhattan centered around the former Pfizer world headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street, a 33-story building constructed in 1960. The site, alongside its neighboring structure at 219 East 42nd, is undergoing conversion into approximately 1,600 residential apartments by Metro Loft and David Werner Real Estate Investments. This project is notable for being the largest office-to-residential conversion in U.S. history.
On Tuesday morning, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) received reports of bricks falling from the structure. Upon inspection, they discovered two support columns buckling on the 21st floor, with sagging floors extending up to the 26th. As a precaution, nine surrounding buildings were evacuated, and a “frozen zone” was established between First and Third Avenues. By Tuesday night, emergency shoring was being installed, although no injuries were reported. Nathan Berman from Metro Loft suggested that the buckling was due to added weight from new floors; however, the construction site had already accumulated seven violations from the Department of Buildings (DOB) over the past year, totaling about $15,000 in fines for incidents involving falling debris.
Forensic and structural engineer Joseph Di Pompeo, who possesses over 25 years of experience in the field, noted that the type of failure observed in the photographs and videos does not support an explanation related to steel quality, which the FDNY had initially suggested. Di Pompeo clarified that column buckling is not influenced by the material’s strength but rather by two key factors: the length of the column between braces and the amount of load it carries. He indicated that the issues at the site likely stem from a loading error, suggesting that either the engineering did not adequately account for the weight being added during the conversion or that construction sequencing imposed excessive load on the columns.
Berman echoed this perspective, describing the incident as a “typical construction mishap” and later calling it a “freak accident.” He maintained that the project overall was “well engineered, well thought through, and well executed,” aside from the failure of the two columns that buckled. He emphasized that the affected area was confined to a small section of the building.
The incident at 235 East 42nd Street occurs amid a surge of similar conversion projects throughout New York City. In 2023, nearly 80 office buildings had been converted to residential use over the previous two decades, with about 200 more potentially in the pipeline. Developers anticipate starting 9.5 million square feet of new office-to-residential conversions in 2026, which represents a significant increase over last year’s pace and approaches the city’s peak in 2008. Currently, New York leads the nation with over 16,000 units under conversion.
However, the financial viability of these conversions may be in question. Goldman Sachs has projected that office prices would need to decrease by nearly 50% in 2024 for such conversions to be feasible on a large scale. A commercial real estate expert noted that approximately 30% of office buildings may be effectively worthless and will require demolition rather than conversion.
Despite the volume of ongoing conversions, Di Pompeo indicated that minor structural issues during construction are commonplace but often do not make headlines unless they result in significant incidents. He remarked that many failures occur without being reported, as they are typically resolved before escalating into major problems.
Regarding the building’s previous violations, Di Pompeo expressed skepticism, asserting that nearly every building in New York has some form of citation. He pointed out that many violations, such as those related to loose debris, are not necessarily indicative of serious structural failures like the column buckling reported this week.
In summary, the incident at the former Pfizer headquarters highlights both the challenges and risks associated with large-scale office-to-residential conversions in New York City. As the demand for residential units continues to grow, the potential for structural issues during construction raises important questions about safety, engineering practices, and the future of urban development in the area.
