Margie Hollis was in her East 40th Street apartment on Tuesday morning, unpacking from her vacation to Bermuda, when she heard that a building two streets over had began to buckle.
The building, 235 East 42nd Street, was under construction to be converted into more than 1,600 apartments, but on Tuesday morning fire officials received a call about falling bricks. That did not check out, but a safety manager reported a compromised steel beam, according to Buildings Department records, and the Fire Department said several floors were sagging.
Workers were evacuated, as were several nearby buildings, and a “frozen zone” was set up from 40th to 45th Streets between First and Third Avenues, restricting the area to passers-by and traffic as a safety precaution.
“This is a minute-by-minute assessment,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at an afternoon news conference.
By early Wednesday, the city buildings commissioner said the tower was now “stable” and the city had reduced the size of the “frozen zone.” But officials continued to warn of problems for the tower’s neighbors.
Edwin Tualiza, who has done HVAC work at the affected building, was working in an adjacent building, 219 East 42nd Street, when he was ordered to evacuate Tuesday morning.
“It looked like it was fine yesterday,” said Mr. Tualiza, 39, who guessed at what might have caused the problems. “There’s a lot of options and possibilities, but the building’s beams started buckling, and now the whole block is on a standstill.”
At least two nearby hotels were also evacuated: the Hampton Inn Manhattan Grand Central, on 43rd Street, and the Westin New York Grand Central, on 42nd Street.
Paul Maurizio, the front desk manager at the nearby Little Charlie Hotel, on Second Avenue near 45th Street, said no officials had told them to evacuate the building, adding that the hotel had received phone calls from people who had evacuated other area hotels and were now looking for rooms.
On East 43rd Street, Christy Walls huddled over a pizza with her two children and college roommate, backpacks stacked on the pavement.
They had planned to check in for their stay at the Hampton Inn, but the hotel was blocked off by street barricades.
“We’re standing on the street with security and police,” the former roommate, Emily Oehler, said on a phone call with Hampton Inn’s corporate offices. “I don’t want you to cancel it because I need a room.”
Ms. Walls, visiting the city from West Virginia for a two-night stay to see “The Outsiders” on Broadway, said the group was trying to switch their reservation to another Hampton Inn. One hotel already turned them down.
“We just need a place to stay,” Ms. Walls said.
Wesley Parnell and Ryley Ober contributed reporting.
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