NEW YORK — The Episcopal Church’s Church Center building at 815 Second Avenue in Manhattan was among several buildings evacuated Tuesday after structural columns buckled and several floors sagged in the nearby 37-story former Pfizer headquarters, which is being converted from a commercial office building into a residential development.
A statement from the FDNY said they received reports of “a structural issue” at the construction site located at 235 E. 42nd Street just before 8 a.m. Tuesday. When they responded to the report with representatives from the Department of Buildings and NYC Emergency Management, they “found structural issues on the 21st floor.”
“Two structural columns buckled, and there were multiple cracks and sagging floors,” the FDNY said in its statement, which included images from the site.
“It’s a very serious situation because the box beams — the steel beams — have started to bend and deflect from the weight,” Chief of Department John Esposito said. “We evacuated the building and started evacuations of surrounding buildings. The building has continued to move since we have been on the scene.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference Wednesday that the situation continues to be monitored but there has been “no additional movement of the structure since yesterday morning.”
In a statement to the Episcopal News Service, a spokesperson from the Episcopal Church Center said they began taking emergency action after receiving reports of debris falling from the nearby building Tuesday morning.
“Our building staff learned of the nearby incident around 8:30 a.m. and instructed all building staff and tenants to shelter in place,” the church spokesperson said. “Shortly after, our staff followed FDNY orders to evacuate the building out of an abundance of caution.”
The evacuation comes weeks after the church announced it is looking to offload the nearly $52 million property through a long-term ground lease with a group that would redevelop the 12-story building into affordable housing.
Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, the developer converting the former Pfizer building with David Werner Real Estate, told The New York Times that the buckling and sagging of the floors were just a “typical construction mishap.”
“This is well engineered, well thought through and well executed, with the exception of those two columns that could not take the load,” he said.
As the city’s Department of Buildings investigates what exactly happened, union advocates near the construction site displayed the message “shame on Metro Loft” on a truck and a placard as people gawked at the building on Wednesday.
“MetroLoft is doing office conversions all over the city. They’re using bottom of the barrel, predatory contractors, who just take advantage of their workers. Many of their workers don’t have proper working documentation to work in the city. And the companies know that and they take advantage of that,” Michael Piccirillo, director of area standards for the New York City & Vicinity District Council of Carpenters, alleged in an interview with The Christian Post Wednesday.
While he waits on the Department of Buildings to complete an investigation into the cause of the problems at the site, Piccirillo said his organization wants New York City taxpayers to pay attention because the mishap “could have been way worse.”
“I think we need the entire New York City, everybody in New York, taxpayers, to kind of wake up and say, ‘You know, this was really big,’” he told CP. “It could have been way worse. Thankfully, no one died. Thankfully, no one got seriously hurt but what’s gonna happen on the next one?”
Damian Maslowski, a unionized construction worker, told CP he believes if unionized workers were doing the conversion of the building, the mishap likely would not have happened.
A structural column buckles on the 21st floor of the former Pfizer building in Midtown Manhattan located 235 E. 42nd on Tuesday July 7, 2026. | FDNY
Sagging floors at the former Pfizer building in Midtown Manhattan located 235 E. 42nd on Tuesday July 7, 2026. | FDNY
Minas Galitsis is the general manager of the Casual Greek restaurant located at 821 2nd Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, N.Y. | The Christian Post/Leonardo Blair
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Minas Galitsis, general manager of the Casual Greek restaurant just a block away from the building on Second Avenue, said his business was forced to shutter on Tuesday and believes MetroLoft should be held accountable.
“Yesterday, because of this situation, we were forced to close our business, and we need somebody to be accountable for the actions causing this to be closed,” he said.
“We lost a lot of revenue; the rents are very expensive. I couldn’t get my deliveries. Now, I might even have to close today, because I don’t have any product. Something’s got to be done. Somebody’s got to be held accountable for this,” he added. “We’re local business owners, and we’re trying to support the community, but people like this … they got to work the right way, do things the correct way.”
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