The developer overseeing the conversion of a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper evacuated after support beams began to buckle is pushing back on concerns that the tower was in danger of coming down, calling the episode a “freak accident.”
The scare unfolded Tuesday inside the 37-story former Pfizer headquarters, where crews are working to turn the office building into apartments. After workers spotted support columns beginning to fail, authorities evacuated at least nine nearby buildings as a precaution.
Nathan Berman, the developer behind the project, told the real estate publication The Real Deal that the problem appeared to involve “two specific columns” that “either were not reinforced or were not reinforced sufficiently,” causing them to give way.
Berman said reports suggesting the East 42nd Street project was on the brink of collapse had been “blown a little bit out of proportion,” even as dramatic video from the 21st floor showed visibly bent support columns.
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He also rejected claims from Cliff Johnsen of Steamfitters Local 638, who suggested the builders had failed to use enough steel to handle the extra weight from the renovation work.
“Total nonsense. This was well designed and approved by structural engineers,” Berman said.
According to Berman, the building “was never at risk of collapse,” and the damage can be repaired. He attributed the buckling to added weight placed on the structure during construction.
“It’s very simple. You add more load to something that can’t support it, it’ll give way, and that’s what happened, and now it just needs to be fixed,” he said.
