The residential conversion of the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street came to a harrowing halt yesterday morning when two support beams on the 21st story buckled, causing several upper floors to sag. Workers in the 33-story tower were evacuated along with occupants of multiple neighboring buildings after city officials deemed the structure at risk of collapse. In the evening, contractors began installing emergency shoring to prevent further damage to the building.
The 1,600-unit office-to-residential conversion began in 2024 and was set to become the largest project of its kind in US history. Work appeared to be progressing smoothly, with most of the new high-performance envelope in place at the time of our last update a month ago.
And while Metro Loft Development, which is leading the project along with David Werner Real Estate Investments, claimed in a statement to the New York Times that the “affected area is a small section” of the overall building, yesterday’s setback casts significant doubts on the future of the redevelopment.
235 East 42nd Street. Photo by Michael Young.
It should not, however, cloud the prospects of further developments of its kind. Midtown and the Financial District have millions of square feet of underused office space, and conversions are one of the most practical ways to adding much-needed housing quicky. One incident at one building is not a reason to slow down the other projects like it.
But yesterday’s near-calamity should call attention to a much larger disaster that may be waiting to happen: The 670-foot condo tower that has been known to be leaning since 2019 and has simply been left standing at the Seaport.
Seaport Residences, formerly dubbed One Seaport, has been a blemish on the Lower Manhattan skyline for more than seven years, languishing in limbo as a concrete skeleton along the waterfront at 161 Maiden Lane. Developed by Fortis Property group, the skyscraper was planned to yield 80 condominium units, but since the discovery of its 3-inch vertical misalignment, there seems to be no feasible path to completion. And given its tenuous foundations, the structure poses a serious risk of catastrophic collapse.
The City of New York can’t afford to wait any longer. It’s time to do something about the Leaning Tower of Lower Manhattan.
Seaport Residences, 161 Maiden Lane. Photo by Michael Young
Seaport Residences’ tilt is nearly impossible to correct, as any efforts would require an extremely costly excavation of its foundations—something that no one is willing to fund. Despite a 2019 survey by engineering firms Arup and WSP that deemed the skyscraper’s structural integrity to be sound, there are several indications that it may not be.
For one, Fortis allegedly forwent recommendations by the initial contractor, Pizzarotti, to use bedrock-anchored structural supports beneath the building’s foundations, instead opting for the less expensive practice of “soil improvement.” The foundations were essentially formed over shored-up dirt, which likely shifted during construction, causing the tower to lean. Fortis accused Pizzarotti of improperly poring the slab, but regardless of where the blame falls, the tower is built on unsteady ground. And since it shifted once, it’s conceivable that it could continue to do so.
Second, the assessment by Arup and WSP is now seven years old, and no more recent public accounting of the building’s condition appears to exist. If no further evaluations have been conducted, no one can know for sure whether the integrity has held.
Third, evidence exists that suggests it may not be holding. A 2024 post on the Reddit Skyscraper community claimed the tower is also leaning to the west, supported by photos that appear to show the western face of the building pressing against the upper levels of the adjacent hotel tower. The photos are unverified and Fortis has not addressed them. But if accurate, they serve as an alarming indication of a progressively worsening problem.
Seaport Residences, 161 Maiden Lane. Photo by Michael Young
Whatever the true state of the tilt, the building has sat exposed to the elements and unmonitored by any public record for the better part of a decade. That’s long enough. The city should require Fortis to commission a current structural survey, made public, before another year passes. If the tower is sound, Fortis should be forced to sell to a developer that can actually put the site to use—potentially as affordable housing, since it’s hard to imagine buyers lining up to pay condo prices to live in a tower with this much baggage.
And if the survey turns up what the Reddit photos suggest, the building should be demolished before its foundation problem becomes the City’s problem. Yesterday’s scare at the Pfizer conversion, bad as it was, involved a structure that has stood on solid ground for more than 65 years. A 670-foot tower coming down on the Seaport waterfront, on a foundation nobody has fully trusted since 2019, would be an order of magnitude worse.
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100% agree! This is exactly like the BQE situation- everyone is sitting on their hands, waiting for a catastrophic disaster to finally force a move. Litigation be damned. Waiting around for the courts to settle this ensures it’s going to end with a completely preventable loss of life.
The city should order an emergency demolition of the Seaport building and that of the additions to Pfizer. I was surprised they blocked traffic on 42nd St., but allowed the Flushing line to keep rumbling by.