NEW YORK—In all the worries and angst over loss of jobs nationwide, what is often overlooked is that there are certain skills, observations, and alertness only humans can perform—such as preventing a catastrophic building collapse in midtown Manhattan.
That’s what happened at 235 East 42nd Street on July 7, when two members of Steamfitters Local 638 discovered buckling beams, sagging floors, and falling concrete at a massive condo conversion project’s 21st story. They alerted supervisors, got out, and got every other worker—union and non-union—out, fast.
And then, responding to a 911 call, police and Fire Fighters arrived and evacuated several blocks. Traffic snarled for hours, and people fled hotels and businesses. But nobody got hurt.
The building, the former headquarters of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company, was being converted from a 22-story office tower to a 37-story future residential building.
But to add 15 floors, you need to reinforce the building’s structural steel, Local 638 President Robert Bartels and Cliff Johnsen, the local’s Business Agent for Midtown East, said in a telephone interview with People’s World.
Apparently, that didn’t happen. There was also no exterior bracing on the building.
On July 7, the two Steamfitters “started to notice the windows were cracking. And then the concrete was dropping down to the next floor,” said Johnsen. “And the walls were collapsing.”
When you add 15 or 16 floors to an existing building, its steel reinforcing vertical structure “has to be buoyed up or changed,” one of the two said. It wasn’t.
The two Steamfitters on the 21st floor alerted Johnsen, and an unidentified supervisor called 911. The two workers got out and got everyone else out. The Steamfitters and the Elevator Constructors are the only union workers on the condo conversion project.
The Fire Fighters, who are also unionized, arrived quickly to battle the hazard, while police evacuated midtown blocks around the building.
They also blocked off major adjoining streets, including stretches of 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue, along with 42nd and 43rd Streets. Traffic was snarled for hours. Hotels and residential buildings were evacuated, along with a private school across 42nd Street.
City officials, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, reported no injuries, but city Building Department inspectors discovered “severe structural damage” between the building’s 21st and 26th floors, the New York Times reported.
On the evening of July 7, Ahmed Tigani, the Department of Buildings Commissioner, pronounced 235 East 42nd Street “stable” and the agency slowly let evacuated people return to nearby buildings, including stores, hotels, and consulates near the United Nations.
But traffic was still curtailed, and Tignani admitted the situation in the neighborhood would remain tense for the next few days. The building is midway between the UN and Grand Central Station.
The inspectors ordered extra shoring for the bending beams and other fixes. An investigation of the structural problems began, but Johnsen and Bartels offered their own reasons.
One is that the prime conversion contractor did not strengthen the building’s superstructure below the 21st floor to carry much more weight before starting work on the extra floors.
The other is “This is a profit over safety situation,” said Bartels.
Which means it could have been prevented had the contractor spent a little more money to prevent such a hazard.
“The NYPD and the Fire Department do an absolutely magnificent job, but there was no reason to put their lives in danger.”
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