A towering Midtown Manhattan skyscraper remains in danger of suffering a partial collapse, with New York’s top fire officials warning the unstable structure is still moving and could potentially fail in a dramatic ‘pancake’-style collapse.

The frightening assessment came hours after engineers, firefighters and city officials raced to prevent disaster at the former Pfizer headquarters on East 42nd Street.

Buckling steel columns and shifting floors have left the 37-story building too dangerous for crews to safely stabilize.

Even more alarmingly, the crisis has now been compounded by allegations from the New York City Department of Buildings that the property’s owner was carrying out construction work beyond previously approved plans.

A complaint was filed on Tuesday as investigators began scrutinizing what went wrong inside one of the nation’s largest office-to-residential conversion projects.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said emergency officials had been monitoring the building continuously since the first signs of structural failure emerged Tuesday morning – and the movement had not stopped.

‘The concern is that since we have been on site in the early morning, we have seen continued shifting of the structure,’ Mamdani said during an afternoon briefing.

The building, at 235 East 42nd Street near Second Avenue, was evacuated during the morning rush after construction workers discovered structural columns buckling inside the high-rise. 

FDNY Chief of Operations John Esposito said the building on East 42nd Street could ‘possibly’ collapse into itself like a ‘pancake’

The 37-story former Pfizer headquarters on East 42nd Street remains at risk of a localized structural collapse, according to FDNY officials

FDNY found two structural columns had buckled on the 21st floor of the high-rise

Authorities quickly cleared eight neighboring buildings and established a large exclusion zone spanning East 40th to East 45th Streets between First and Third avenues, shutting the busy Midtown corridor to both pedestrians and traffic.

Officials said highly sensitive monitoring equipment detected continued movement within the structure as crews watched the building from outside.

FDNY Chief of Operations John Esposito said the building’s steel-frame design meant authorities were not expecting a total collapse, but warned that a localized structural failure remained a very real possibility.

‘The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel-frame building, so it would not be a total collapse, it would be more of a localized collapse,’ Esposito said. 

‘That remains our concern – that it’s moving. We have seen continual movement. It does mean it is not stable.’

Asked whether such a failure could resemble the floors collapsing into one another like a pancake, Esposito replied: ‘Possibly.’

Officials said two structural columns on the building’s 21st floor had buckled, while another column was also showing movement.

Terrifying footage filmed by workers inside the building showed the massive silver beams buckling and bending just moments before the floor started to crumble

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 site

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said emergency crews observed continued movement in the building throughout the day on Tuesday

‘The building remains unstable,’ Mamdani said.

The mayor described the response as a constantly evolving operation.

‘This is a minute-by-minute assessment,’ he said, urging New Yorkers to stay away from the area while engineers worked to determine the safest course of action. 

Authorities said six specialists representing the FDNY, the Department of Buildings and the project’s construction management team, entered the building on Tuesday afternoon to conduct a closer inspection after monitoring suggested the structure had not shifted for roughly two hours.

Drones were also deployed around the building as engineers examined the damaged areas from above.

Esposito said firefighters have been using specialized monitoring equipment capable of detecting movement measuring only fractions of an inch.

‘It’s a very serious situation because the box beams, the steel beams, have started to bend and deflect from the weight,’ Esposito said.

‘We evacuated the building and started evacuations of surrounding buildings. The building has continued to move since we have been on the scene.’

Behind the emergency response, investigators are also beginning to examine whether problems during the renovation project contributed to the dangerous conditions now gripping the building.

The Department of Buildings filed a complaint Tuesday against the property’s owner, 235 Fee Owner LLC, alleging construction had exceeded previously approved plans.

Although the full details of the complaint have not yet been made public, the agency’s online records state that ‘no support of excavation has been approved.’

Several FDNY crews outside the 37-story skyscraper on East 42nd Street on Tuesday 

East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues, is closed to pedestrian and vehicle traffic as officials continue their investigation. Commuters are advised to avoid the area

The former Pfizer office tower has been undergoing an ambitious transformation since 2024 into a residential development expected to contain roughly 1,500 to 1,600 apartments by 2027.

As part of the project, contractors had been adding 11 new stories above an existing 22-story section of the structure, according to Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani.

Sources familiar with the response said the compromised areas appear to include the 17th and 21st floors, both located beneath the newly added construction. 

Officials later said the 21st through 26th floors had caved under stress, with multiple cracks and sagging floors reported throughout sections of the building.

 People look up at the building on Tuesday. Numerous streets were closed to both cars and pedestrians as officials continued to examine the building

Concerned New Yorkers look up with worry as streets around the building are shuttered

Despite the alarming damage, city officials have repeatedly emphasized that any structural failure would likely remain confined to part of the building because of its steel-frame construction rather than bringing down the entire tower.

The underlying cause of the structural failure remains unknown.

Tigani said investigators will first have to secure the building before determining exactly what triggered the buckling.

Emergency beams and temporary columns will likely be required to reinforce the damaged floors before a full forensic investigation can proceed.