This really *is* new and different. A building in Manhattan is not doing what it should. It’s causing … difficulties. It’s misbehaving and has the potential to cause something very, very bad. It’s being turned into something good, but with these problems, it’s most certainly going to be awhile. No, this is not political, just strange. With respect to Raw Story:
A PIX 11 anchor cut himself off mid-sentence Tuesday and fled the studio as the building directly across from his newsroom teetered on the edge of collapse. PIX 11 anchor Dan Mannarino was on the air covering the crisis at 235 East 42nd Street — the former Pfizer headquarters, now a construction site — when the order came down. “We are being told that we have to evacuate the building right now,” Mannarino told viewers, “which is right across the street from this building in question.”
We had to evacuate a medical office when the crane next door (for construction, natch) started swaying. Turns out we were definitely on the wrong side of the building for that. Trying to move fast while using a cane is a challenge. It was disturbing and unnerving. At least we were only on the 11th floor. We didn’t see anything, but those things are *solidly* built, so it must have been a perfect storm of conditions to cause the movement.
“We are gonna have to evacuate the building, reestablish all of this equipment and everything outside to come back on the air,” he said. “But we’re gonna have to take a brief pause right now as we’re being told to evacuate the Daily News Building, which is right across from this building in question. We just gotta keep everybody safe.” “Absolutely,” co-anchor Vanessa Freeman agreed. Then Mannarino started his next sentence — and the broadcast went silent.
The broadcast went silent. Yikes. Did someone pull the plug? That’s nerve-wracking. We hope every place that needed to be evacuated was able to get out safely. It’s hard to even imagine what it was like seeing that steel bending. The new question is who built it in the first place. Is the construction company still around? Where did the beams come from, and are *they* still around? And by the way, watching the construction of a building is fascinating. Just wish there had been a chance to sit inside the crane.
The crisis began just before 8 a.m., when construction workers at 235 East 42nd Street spotted structural support beams buckling on the 21st floor and got out. The New York City Fire Department arrived to find that two columns had buckledand floors were sagging from the 21st to the 26th floor of the 38-story tower, which is being converted from offices to apartments. Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) said at a news conference that assessments were happening “minute by minute.” “I’ve been in construction 21 years, and I’ve neverseen a beam bent in half,” a union ironworkers representative told Fox 5 NY from the scene. “So, this is super dangerous.”
We can certainly expect that every one of us has seen a structure being put together, so we have all seen a support beam. Those things are hefty. And a couple are bent in the building. Hopefully, we will be able to find out what happened. For now, as Mayor Mamdani said, it’s a minute by minute wait. Time to watch the soccer game for a bit. Good times!
I lived just outside of the Bronx and worked on 18th Street. So, I actually know what I’m talking about. See you soon!
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Sounds like Rump Construction.
Whoa I hadn’t thought that far. We know he has a home in Manhattan and loves the city. He could have very easily have “helped” the original constructor to get the job. Yikes.
His Orangeness bought the onetime Commodore Hotel, a couple blocks west of this project, and had it renovated and gilded before having the obligatory gold-plated “TRUMP” lettering on it. However, he didn’t pull the weasel deal these developers did, adding floors to an existing structure. IIRC, The Orange Draftdodger didn’t stint on materials in his buildings, choosing instead to stiff subcontractors and laborers. After all, his onetime NYC home address was two floors of a Fifth Avenue building he put his name on.
What I find interesting is that the “building” under conversion consists of a 10-story structure at 219 East 42nd Street, built in 1910 and incorporated into a 33-story 1963-built structure at 235 East 42nd Street. The older part of the finished building was treated to a glass-panel exterior matching that of its newly built “addition”.
Pfizer needed a larger space for its HQ and vacated the building(s) a couple years ago, and the structure became a candidate for conversion from office to residential space. However, instead of leaving well enough alone, the new owners undertook a 21-story addition on top of the original 10-story 1910-built portion. Images of the bent support beams don’t specify their locations within the structure, so it’s not clear which part of it has the issue. We’ll have to wait for that information.
While His Orangeness has no part in this debacle, I have no doubt there’s a weasel deal at the center of it.
Sounds like incomplete checking on the engineers’ part, prior to trying to add stories to the building. Primarily, is the original structure up to carrying that load?
Ahhh, the “64 thousand dollar” question. One photo of a deformed support looks as though some corrosion had eaten into it. Too many unanswered questions at this time…..