New York — Fears that a Manhattan office tower under conversion could collapse have eased after inspectors found no signs of further structural movement following the discovery of buckled support columns that prompted an emergency evacuation.
Seven nearby buildings, including a school, hotels and the Israeli consulate, were evacuated after photographs appeared to show a severely bent internal column inside the 37-storey building, which is being converted into residential apartments.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani described the incident as “an extremely serious situation” as engineers carried out emergency inspections.
Officials later said they had identified two buckled columns on the 21st floor, along with sagging floors and multiple cracks. However, continuous monitoring found no additional movement in the structure.
“We’ve been monitoring the building for many hours and have not seen any movement,” Buildings Department Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said, adding that emergency repair work had begun.
Fire Chief John Esposito said any structural failure, if it were to occur, would likely be limited rather than catastrophic.
“It wouldn’t be a total collapse,” he told reporters. “It would be more of a localised collapse.”
By Tuesday night, authorities had allowed residents to return to some of the seven evacuated buildings after determining that the immediate risk had diminished. Construction crews continued stabilisation work inside the tower.
The building, originally constructed in the 1970s, is being redeveloped by MetroLoft as part of what the company says is the largest office-to-residential conversion project in New York City, with plans to create more than 1,600 apartments.
According to city records, the project has previously received safety violations, including incidents involving falling glass, falling metal debris and a worker who fell from a ladder.
MetroLoft founder Nathan Berman told The Wall Street Journal that the damage may have been caused by additional weight created while widening the upper floors during construction, combined with what may have been insufficient reinforcement of two columns.
“Why those particular two columns and nothing else? We don’t know,” he said.
Berman said the damage appeared to be confined to a small section of the building.
“Ninety-five percent of the building, the structure is sound and intact,” he said. “There is no way that this corner of a small extension all of a sudden topples this building.”
Officials said engineers would continue monitoring the tower while emergency repairs are carried out.
