The support columns that buckled inside a midtown Manhattan high-rise under construction, sparking a partial collapse, were never reinforced, despite engineering plans that called for the installation of additional steel plates, according to reports.
GACE Consulting Engineers, who designed the structural plans for the renovation at 235 E. 42nd St., called for the installation of steel plates along the length of the two columns that bent, according to city-approved structural drawings first reported by Gothamist.
Principal Engineer Chris Behan told the outlet that construction crews never installed these crucial reinforcements on three floors, including on the 21st floor, where the collapse occurred.
“The reinforcement from the 19th floor to the top of the 21st floor, which would have significantly increased the columns’ strength, was never installed,” Behan told Gothamist in a statement. “The structure was not reinforced as GACE’s design required.”
GACE did not immediately respond to the News’ request for comment.
The steel plates were meant to support the weight of the 15 residential floors being added above, according to the New York Times.
The steel-framed building formerly held offices for Pfizer, but is now being renovated into luxury residential housing, the largest such conversion in city history. The project is slated to create 1,602 apartments.
The city Department of Buildings said it was too early to determine that the failure to reinforce the columns was the sole cause of the partial collapse.
“Our investigation into the structural failure at 235 East 42nd Street is ongoing, and we have not yet made any determinations on what factors led to the incident,” a Department of Buildings spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
MetroLoft, a developer of the project, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This is a freak accident that something occurred with these two specific columns that either were not reinforced or were not reinforced sufficiently, and they gave way. That’s it. There’s no mystery, and there’s no magic,” Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, previously told the Real Deal, hours after the July 7 incident.
The bent columns, which caused the floors to sag between the 21st and 26th floors inside the 37-story building where the city’s largest office-to-housing renovation was underway, caused city officials to evacuate the surrounding blocks, fearing a full collapse. At least nine nearby buildings were also evacuated.
Barry Williams / New York Daily News; Obtained by Daily News
Construction workers were evacuated from a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper at 235 E. 42nd St. at Second Ave. Tuesday, July 7, 2026, after two interior columns began to buckle. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News; Obtained by Daily News)
No injuries were reported as firefighters evacuated the building and 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 off-limits area was later scaled back after work crews braced the buckling beams.
DOB Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said in a statement July 10, that the site contractor is “focusing on further stabilizing the building with shoring and that work is going on around the clock.”
As of Friday, 43rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Aves. remained closed as crews continue to reinforce the building and launch an investigation, a DOB spokesman confirmed.