NYC NOW - What Went Wrong at the Midtown High Rise Where Columns Buckled?

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

A few weeks after two structural columns buckled at a Midtown Manhattan high rise, WNYC and Gothamist reporter David Brand shares new details from hours spent reviewing hundreds of pages of building plans at the Department of Buildings. He explains what the plans called for, what the engineering firm says about whether required steel reinforcements were installed and what city officials are investigating now. Plus, WNYC and Gothamistreporter Arya Sundaram reflects on how the 2026 FIFA World Cup brought immigrant communities together at watch parties across New York City. Photo: New York City Department of Buildings -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail] -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Junae Pierre. The World Cup is over, and Spain is crown champion. But aren't we all winners? On today's episode, we reflect on how the major soccer tournament was a welcome respite for immigrant communities across the five boroughs. But first, here's what we're watching in New York City. The FBI says its New York Joint Terrorism Task Force

is investigating an explosion outside. a federal building in lower Manhattan. A spokesperson says someone set off an incendiary device Monday morning outside 26 federal plaza. That's the site for immigration court. Officials say the person has been taken into custody. FBI director Cash Patel said on social media that four minor injuries have been reported. For updates on this story as it develops, keep an eye on our news site Gothamist. Or tune in to WNYC Radio.

A new report finds Waymo's. driverless taxis cause more deadly crashes and serious injuries than other for-hired vehicles in New York City. The report was published in part by the Street Safety Advocacy Group Open Plans. It compares to city's Uber and lifts to Waymo vehicles around the country that have been operating since 2020. Waymo says its self-driven taxis caused 94% fewer crashes and injuries than human-driven vehicles. But the report's co-author, Kelly McGinnis, says the better comparison is, to the city's fleet of professional for higher drivers. I think what our report emphasizes is significant caution

and further scrutiny before we allow, you know, this tack onto our streets. Waymo officials say many street safety advocates question the mythology of self-driving vehicles and deny the findings. A few weeks ago, we reported on a Midtown Manhattan building that had to be evacuated during a construction project over concerns of a potential color.

lapse. You may remember this story. The developer Metro Loft is converting the former Pfizer headquarters on East 42nd Street into a 1600 unit residential building. But during construction, two structural columns in the building began to buckle. Emergency crews evacuated the building and neighboring buildings while working to stabilize the structure. Now, WNYC and Gothamist reporter David Brand has uncovered new details after reviewing hundreds of pages of engineering plans and Department of Buildings Records. The engineering firm that designed the structural plans says required steel reinforcements were never installed on three floors, including the 21st floor where the columns buckled. David joins us now. Hey, Janae, thanks for having me. So I'm no engineer. Surprise.

And for listeners who are also not engineers, what was that extra steel? is supposed to do. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not an engineer either, and I've gotten a real crash course the past two weeks or so covering this story. But, all right, so you think of this building, 235, East 42nd Street, the former Pfizer building, picture a wedding cake where it's wide at the base in every few stories. It gets a little narrower. So the original building was 33 stories tall, but in this portion of the building, the

21st floor was basically the top of that second. of the building. So the developer expanded 10 additional stories above that 21st floor and then added four new floors. So really, that piece of the building is now supporting 14 additional floors that it wasn't previously. So that's a lot of weight. That's tens of thousands of square feet that are new to the building. The engineer's plans did call for reinforcing those existing columns. and that engineer's name is Christopher Behan. He's from a company called Gase Consulting Engineers. He's the one who designed the structural plans.

Okay. And what did they say? Well, as you mentioned, kind of a bombshell. He says that that reinforcing was never installed on three floors, including the 21st, where this structural failure happened. And that would be a pretty big deal, a pretty big departure from his plans. Yeah, for sure. That sounds like something inspectors should have caught in the beginning. Who's checking this work, David?

Well, yeah, that's the big question. Why was this not caught? So this company called Damani inspection services was hired to perform these special safety inspections that work would have included reviewing structural steel and welding. That's according to filings with the Department of Buildings. DeMani hasn't responded to my requests for comment, and they're kind of keeping relatively quiet about this. But they did give a statement to CBS news pretty quickly after the structural failure where they said they only inspect work that's been actually performed, which was kind of telling in the in light of what the engineer said that that work wasn't performed. So we still don't know, you know, the Department of Buildings, they say their investigation is still ongoing. They've declined to comment on any further than that and to say who's responsible or even whether or not that.

work was done or not. But yeah, it seems a couple entities involved here saying it might not have been. Yeah, very confusing. David, I know that your reporting says that the building department acknowledged the error issue, but they later walked it back. Can you tell us what that's all about? Yeah, this was kind of an odd one. So there was initial complaint posted on the Department of Buildings website where someone from the Department of Buildings said that the structural failure was due to a failure to provide the required steel reinforcement as per the engineer's plans. They later deleted that language from the complaint. And when I had seen the original complaint and two people had shared it with me and then I checked it against the current one and saw that that language is deleted and I asked what happened.

A spokesperson for the Department of Building says an employee accidentally entered that and then they corrected it because the investigation is still. ongoing and so again they say you know they can't determine the true cause just yet so maybe someone jumped the gun maybe that was a mistake okay what about the developer Metro Loft what's their response to these findings well Metro Loft has communicated with me through a spokesperson throughout this at the very beginning of when this all went down there the head of the company's names Nathan Berman he gave a few interviews not to WNYC in Gothamus or to NYC now unfortunately but he did tell

the New York Times that he suspected the columns were not reinforced or they were not properly reinforced. So a lot of signs are pointing to this. You have the structural engineers saying it, the developer saying it right off the bat, Department of Buildings, putting it in that complaint and then removing it. And then if you kind of infer what the inspection company is saying, they say we only check work that's been done. So yeah, a lot of signs pointing to that it wasn't done and it wasn't done correctly. Considering all of this, where does this leave the building and developer Metro Lough and their plan to create these 1,600 apartment units?

I don't know. Maybe that's the $720 million question here because that's how much of a loan they took out to do construction on this project. It's the largest office to residential conversion in the history of New York City, 1600 units in this building and an adjacent building where they've also added new. floors and trying to do this residential retrofit. They say it's supposed to open next year, but this is complicating that, to say the least, because they're not going to be able to get back in there and do the work that they need to do to be able to open it until this investigation wraps up. They also say they're going to either demolish or in some other way, renovate

the work they've already done on expanding those 10 floors and then adding those four additional stories on top of the building. in light of this structural failure. So that's just going to add time and money to the project, too. So we shall see, you know, it's, but that timeline, it looks more and more difficult to hit. Yeah, true setback indeed. You've mentioned over and over that, you know, the investigation is ongoing. Can you tell us about where it stands, what stage we're in at least? Well, I don't know the answer to that. I mean, the Department of Buildings, that is their default statement. The investigation is still ongoing. You know,

I can say that they have done the emergency shoring work to reinforce the floors from the ninth floor of the building all the way up to the roof so that it is safe to enter and to conduct more of this investigation and some additional work, I guess, to do some more permanent reinforcement. But it's kind of a black box. I don't know how far along they are in the investigation or when we might find out the true answer. And that's why we keep reporting. Yeah, well, we know you'll keep us up to date. Thanks so much, David. Thanks a lot, Janae. That's WNYC's housing reporter, David Brinan. Well, that's a wrap for the FIFA World Cup tournament in New York and New Jersey. After the break, we reflect on what these past few weeks of soccer has meant for immigrant communities across New York City. Stay close. Maine is the 26 men's World Cup champion after defeating Argentina Sunday, one to nothing. The final capped a tournament that drew soccer fans to viewing parties all across the five boroughs and surrounding regions.

Here in New York City, where about 60% of residents are immigrants or the children of immigrants, the tournament gave many immigrant New Yorkers a welcome break from immigration anxieties and rising xenophobia. It also gave them a public space to celebrate their heritage. WNYC and Gothamist reporter Arias Sundaram spent the past few weeks at watch parties in immigrant neighborhoods, around the city. She joins me to reflect on some of her favorite moments during the World Cup tournament. Aria, welcome to the show. Thank you. I know you usually cover race and justice and immigration a lot, so I'm really happy to talk to you about the World Cup today because this is somewhat of a welcome respite for you too, right? Totally. So when you walked into those watch parties, what hit you first?

When I went to different places, there's different teams, there's different jerseys that people are wearing. But at the end of the day, there was the same passion, this, like, hit you in the face, electric exuberance that people had. And what I really loved about it was that people were showing pride for where they came from. Yeah, I love that too. Can you give me an example? Yeah, I think the one that sticks to me to most is when I was at this Mexican restaurant in downtown Brooklyn, I was Aeson. And it was the Mexico game against Ecuador. Oh, yeah, a good one. For sure, for sure.

And there was this woman that had one of those tall Virhan de Guadalupe candles. Yeah. And she lit it before the game and she kept it at the entirety of the match. Did she have rosary beads? You know, she did not actually. She thought this was like her one offering. But it was a good one. Yeah, definitely.

And I'm assuming that underneath that pride, people are also talking about the anxiety that they have over immigration right now. People are feeling attacked right now. Yeah. And you know, Trump's immigration crackdown. is in full swing, ice arrests are on the rise, and the World Cup is an opportunity to take a step back from all of that. Yeah, for sure. So Mexico against Ecuador, that was a fun one for you.

Can we go to Little Egypt? What was happening when you got to Steinway Street? Oh my God, yeah. So I get off the train, walk down to Steinway Street, and when I get to Steinway Street, it is Muslim Friday prayers. And there are men on the street that are kneeling and they're red and black jerseys. and then right afterwards, they're going straight to the hookabars and the restaurants and the cafes to watch the game against Australia. That's pretty cool.

What did that gathering mean to Egyptian New Yorkers? Yeah, so it makes me think about a conversation I had at this one hookabar called Aladdin hookabar with a man named Ramsey Mansour. He's the son of Egyptian immigrants, and he was watching the game that day. We're a little bit in this country where we feel like second-class citizens, so this is one thing that helps bring us together and makes us very proud to be Egyptians. And there was this other guy that I spoke to named Mohamed Karchi, and he's an immigrant. He told me that these days he usually only travels from work to home and home to work. But obviously that day was different because he was at the hookabar. I need to watch the game, you know.

I have no choice, you know. I'm not from Egypt, actually, but, you know, when a country Arabic, you know, play, you know, all Arabic humanity, you know, they come to support them. And who was Egypt playing that day? Australia. And they ended up winning. Yeah. Crazy because the streets just went absolutely wild.

Oh, yeah, it sounds crazy. Ariya, how many people are we talking about here? I mean, hundreds. I mean, maybe even thousands that were just like pouring onto the street. And you have to remember, this was the furthest that Egypt ever made it in the World Cup. So I understand that you also went out to Little Senegal. What was that like? I did.

I think one of the places that was the most lively there was the Senegalese Association of America, actually. And there were more than 50. mostly guys that were crammed into this room. Was this the match that Senegal was eliminated? It was. It ended up being the match that they were eliminated. But they were up two points for a while for most of the game. And it was looking like they were going to win.

And every time that they scored a goal, a bunch of people would get up. They would like wave their shirts, flags, you know, just go crazy for the moment. They started video chatting people that they knew just to kind of like share in the moment, you know? Yeah, yeah. I know there was a lot of. anticipation for Senegal to win that day, but did the topic of immigration come up there as well? Yeah, it did. I was actually talking with this guy. His name was Musa Gay. A lot of people, they skip because they feel like they work hard in America, but all the stuff

that they're working for, it might not mean anything if they're forced to leave the country. It's difficult, you know? He's actually 27, and his dad's from Senegal. And I guess now that Senegal is out, is that attention just gone? There's certainly still those immigration anxieties and fears, but I think what struck me a lot from every place that I went was that even when teams lost, people were still celebrating. It was a moment to celebrate their teams, to celebrate where they came from.

I mean, think about Little Egypt after they ended up losing to Argentina. People were still in the streets, dancing, and, you know, dancing to Tabla and being together. And like there's these scenes that you can. can see from Little Morocco losing. And in Little Morocco, people were, you know, still setting off fireworks and dancing as well on the streets, too. Are you, did you learn anything from watching these different communities viewing the World Cup matches? Yeah. New York City is a city of micro-communities, right? And I think these communities are what make the city stronger and richer in that gorgeous mosaic that David Dinkins always talked about.

There was actually this woman that I met at the Colombian bar. And she put it really well. She said, which means that these games help people feel a sense of community and feel a little piece of the motherland here. And I think that's what New York City is all about. And I mean, maybe Bad Bunny put it best.

I mean, this is Nueva York. That's WNYC's ARIA Sondrum. Thanks a lot, Aria, for stopping by. Thanks for having me. And thank you for listening to NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. See you next time.