New York high-rise at risk of 'collapse' after buckled columns spark evacuations

Evacuations and road closures have been ordered in New York City after a Manhattan high-rise building was deemed to be unstable because some of its interior columns buckled and floors began to sag.

The former headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is located in a busy corridor in the area along East 42nd Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

The building was being converted to luxury apartments when the damage was first uncovered, and fears grew of a potential collapse on Tuesday, local time.

New York Fire Department chief John Esposito said the way the steel-framed building was constructed, "it would not be a total collapse, it would be more of a localised collapse."

Firefighters had rushed to the area around 8am, local time, after reports of falling bricks. The city’s building commissioner Ahmed Tigani said officials had not found evidence that anything came off the building.

"This is a minute-by-minute assessment," New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters near the scene.

Leila Bozorg, one of Mamdani's deputy mayors, later told reporters that emergency workers were assessing the building "floor by floor" in order to "finalise a plan for how they're going to re-enforce the structure", adding "it is encouraging."

Fire officials said two columns appear to have buckled and there were multiple cracks and sagging floors between the 21st and 26th floors.

From the street below, a badly bent column could be seen through a large glass window. The fire department also posted images of the column.

First responders and city officials were working closely with the project engineer to develop plans to shore up the impacted flooring, Mr Mamdani said.

If it is deemed to be secure, engineers will enter and begin making repairs.

The building commissioner said workers would need to add emergency beams and columns to stabilise the compromised ones.

"Our top priority right now is the safety of those who live in this area and the safety of those who work in this area," Mr Mamdani said.

The incident sparked evacuations of nearby streets and buildings, including a school and the Israeli consulate located across the street.

With more than 1,600 units, the developers say the project is the largest office-to-residential conversion in the city's history.

Gensler, the architectural firm leading the project, said on its website that it was transforming a pair of 1970s-era office buildings by adding more than a dozen stories and redesigning an adjoining tower.

Buildings department records show the project has been fined by the city for several safety violations, including glass and metal falling off the building, along with an incident where a worker fell off a ladder.

Spokespersons for Gensler and MetroLoft, the project developer, did not return messages seeking comment.

In a statement to The New York Times, MetroLoft stressed that the building itself was not at risk of collapse and that no debris had fallen from the building.

AP