Posted on 07/11/2026 11:55:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The developer of a sagging Midtown Manhattan skyscraper has been accused of carrying out unauthorized construction after two columns buckled and several floors collapsed.
The owner of the the 37-story office building on East 42nd Street performed construction that went beyond previously approved plans, according to a complaint filed by the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) on Tuesday.
Specifics of the complaint against the owner, listed as 235 Fee Owner LLC, are not yet publicly available but the DOB's portal stated that 'no support of excavation has been approved.'
Construction crews evacuated the skyscraper just after 8am Tuesday after they discovered that two columns had begun to buckle.
The 21st to 26th floors of the building near Grand Central Terminal caved in under stress, officials say. Multiple cracks and sagging floors have been reported throughout the high-rise.
Footage filmed by workers showed the massive silver beams on the 21st and 22nd floors buckling and bending just moments before the floor started to crumble.
The building remains unstable, but experts insist that any collapse would be localized and that, due to its steel supports, the high-rise won't come toppling down.
The skyscraper, which once housed pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, has been under renovation since 2024 and is being converted into a 1,500-unit luxury apartment complex.
The DOB has issued 22 violations at the address, dating back to 2022, according to the agency's public portal. A majority of the violations stemmed from failing to file elevator inspection and testing reports.
Thirteen complaints remain active, with 235 Fee Owner LLC owing the city $39,000 in penalties.
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767s hit Twin Towers…757 hit Pentagon…767 went down in Shanksville…
Looks like I- beam coated with fire retardant material…
You can quickly identify those who know nothing about structures by their use of ‘beam’ to refer to vertical members. Still plenty of room for dumbassery even by those who actually know what a ‘column’ is and what it’s for.
Looks likes a prelude to “IT ALL CAME TUMBLING DOWN”.
Sounds like a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
Maybe it's me, but I have never heard of taking a building whose structure was made to hold 10 floors and has done so for 100 years, and then attempt to stick 19 additional floors on top of it.
and there’s this confusion about the “special tools to monitor movement”: ‘centimeters or a fraction of an inch.’
probably measures millimeters not centimeters, but we can’t expect “journalists” to understand little details like the difference between centimeters and millimeters, after all, both have the word “meter” in them, so what difference does it make [hillary clinton school of ‘journalism”] ...
I heard when I was stationed in South Korea, there was some sort of scandal involving defective concrete in bridges, something to do with using seawater in the mix in lieu of freshwater, which is a huge no-no apparently. Oops
I wonder if it’s crappy Chinese-made steel.
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