Midtown Manhattan blocks evacuated after beams buckling at construction site

gorjusborg

Does anyone here have any knowledge of how something like this gets resolved?

danofsteel32

This is a little pedantic but the pictures seem to show failing support columns not beams. Beams are horizontal and columns are vertical.

pram

I'm not an expert but those look like pretty wimpy columns? Kind of surprising, when I worked in a tower it had exposed concrete columns that were very thick in comparison

kylehotchkiss

The USA is mostly empty space. Trying to force upwards in such an already dense area just doesn't make sense. We are not constrained the way singapore is.

ChrisArchitect

NYT updates (non-paywall) https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07/07/nyregion/pfizer-buil...

comrade1234

They're adding a hunch of floors to an existing building - it was the old Pfizer headquarters and they want to turn it into apartments. Someone either didn't do the proper engineering study, or the original specs weren't accurate. Figuring out who to blame will probably take years in court.

cromka

Having seen the photos, I simply can't imagine how can they recover from that.

archonis

I wonder if Metroloft cut corners on structural engineering practices given that they also exploit non-union workers.

Krypto26

You mean they are buckling even without the benefit of being struck with an aircraft or thousands of gallons of burning jet fuel?

fmajid

There was the Citibank headquarters https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/05/29/the-fifty-nine...