A major Midtown Manhattan street that was closed since the near collapse of an office-to-residential conversion project reopened Friday, after Department of Building officials determined there was no ongoing structural danger.
E. 43rd St. between Second and Third Aves. was closed to vehicle traffic for nearly two weeks.
“DOB engineers have completed review of the stabilization & facade enclosure work at 235 East 42nd St & have determined that there are no significant structural issues which would endanger public safety,” agency officials wrote on X.
“As a result, we have given the green light for lifting closures on 43rd St.”
A building at the corner of E. 42nd St. and Second Ave. in Manhattan suffered from structural damage. The Department of Buildings released a photo (inset) showing the emergency work they did to prevent a full collapse. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News; Dept. of Buildings via X)
The Department of Buildings investigation into the cause of the structural failure at the former Pfizer headquarters at E. 42nd St. and Second Ave. is currently ongoing, a spokesman confirmed.
A stop-work order remains in effect at the residential conversion project, with an exception for additional safety work at the site ordered by the agency. It was not immediately clear when construction operations would resume. The DOB spokesman said decisions will depend on what the probe reveals about the cause of the near collapse.
The street had been closed after two steel support columns buckled inside the 37-story Midtown high-rise on July 7, causing building evacuations on surrounding blocks and halting work on gut-renovating the former office building into luxury housing. The largest such conversion project in the city’s history, it’s slated to create 1,602 apartments.
No injuries were reported.
A building at the corner of E. 42nd St. and Second Ave. in Manhattan is pictured Tuesday, July 7, 2026, after the building was evacuated because of structural damage. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
At least nine nearby buildings were evacuated, alongside construction workers at the Midtown high-rise. The city set up a frozen zone closed to all pedestrian and vehicular traffic from E. 40th to E. 45th St. between First and Third Aves.
The city scaled back the off-limits area after the buckling beams were successfully stabilized.
In the following days, project workers spoke out, saying that support column reinforcements were never installed on three stories, including on the 21st floor where the collapse occurred. The bent columns caused the floors to sag between the 21st and 26th floors, as the city feared an even larger collapse.