6whycr2yffn5riprqdlxgpv4j5b7285.32 KBMidtown Building Evacuated After Columns Buckle Inside 42nd Street Skyscraper
By Michele Evans New York City, New York Date: 7/7/2026
Category: Public Safety / Construction / Midtown Manhattan / City Accountability / New York Civic Life
NEW YORK CITY, NY - A Midtown Manhattan skyscraper was evacuated Tuesday morning after two interior columns began to buckle, raising fears that part of the building could collapse.
The emergency unfolded at 235 East 42nd Street near Second Avenue, where firefighters were called just before 8 a.m. after reports that bricks were falling from the building.
Once inside, FDNY officials found that two columns had buckled on the 21st and 22nd floors. Floors between the 21st and 26th floors were sagging, according to reports from the Daily News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal.
Construction workers were evacuated from the building, and surrounding buildings were also cleared as a precaution. No injuries were reported in the early updates.
The building, formerly known as Pfizer’s world headquarters, sits in one of the busiest corridors of Midtown. Emergency responders shut down nearby pedestrian and vehicle traffic while FDNY, NYPD, and the city Department of Buildings assessed the danger.
The Department of Buildings is now inspecting the structure and investigating what caused the columns to fail.
For New Yorkers, the question is not just whether this one building can be stabilized. It is how a major Midtown high-rise under construction reached the point where columns buckled, floors sagged, bricks fell, workers had to run, and nearby buildings had to be evacuated before the morning rush was even over.
New York does not get to treat construction danger as routine.
Every falling brick is a warning. Every buckling column is a failure point. Every emergency evacuation is a reminder that building safety is not paperwork. It is life and death.
This is a developing story.
*Michele Evansis an independent journalist, author, and former ESPN technical producer whose work has appeared in The New York Times.
Michele got her start in 2001 covering the NBA and NFL.
She now covers New York City courts, criminal-justice procedure, NYPD, FDNY, domestic-violence systems, media accountability, public safety, advocacy efforts, and New York civic life through courthouse observation, public records, legal analysis, and lived-experience reporting.
