NYC high-rise conversion disaster: Columns buckling like cigarettes as profit trumps safety

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This wasn’t supposed to happen.

A former Pfizer headquarters was being turned into more than 1,600 luxury apartments.

Then support columns started buckling.

Construction workers described steel beams “bending like cigarettes.”

Floors between roughly the 21st and 26th stories began sagging.

Hours later, officials were still saying the building was moving.

That is the detail that grabbed me.

Not that something failed.

That it apparently kept moving.

Streets around the building were closed.

Nearby buildings were evacuated.

A school was cleared during rush hour.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt.

Construction workers are already blaming cheap contractors and putting profit ahead of proper engineering.

We’ll see what investigators ultimately find.

But if those claims have any truth behind them, this won’t stay just one construction story.

New York badly needs more housing.

Turning old office towers into apartments has become a major part of that plan.

Now one of the city’s highest profile conversion projects is making people wonder whether some developers are trying to squeeze too much out of aging buildings.

One thing seems certain.

Every developer working on an office conversion in New York just got everyone’s attention.

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