In the immediate aftermath of the July 7 column buckling at 235 E. 42nd St., the Department of Buildings posted a written finding that missing reinforcement caused the near-collapse — then deleted it. The agency now declines to say whether the reinforcement was ever properly installed.
In the hours after columns buckled on the 21st floor of the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 E. 42nd St. on July 7, the Department of Buildings posted a written complaint disposition that named a cause: "Failure to provide steel reinforcement as per approved plans led to the cause of the incident."
The city agency then deleted the sentence. It has not explained what, if anything, replaced it as a finding.
DOB spokesperson Andrew Rudansky told Gothamist last week that "one of our staff members at DOB typed in the initial disposition which was not accurate" and that the entry "was shortly corrected the same day." Rudansky declined to say whether the reinforcement was in fact properly completed — or what the accurate finding is.
The city-approved structural plans, reviewed by Gothamist, show why reinforcement was central to the design. The two buckled columns were required to be reinforced for 13 continuous stories — from the 9th floor to the 21st — directly beneath a 10-story addition that expanded the footprint of the original 33-story building. DOB emergency-shored all floors from the 9th story to the roof after the failure. The project, MetroLoft's conversion of the Pfizer tower into a planned 1,600-unit residential complex, is the largest office-to-residential conversion in New York City.
MetroLoft principal Nathan Berman gave his own public assessment on the day of the failure. In an interview with the New York Times that morning, Berman said he suspected the two columns were not properly reinforced — an account that tracks with what the DOB disposition originally said before the agency erased it. MetroLoft declined to comment on the specific cause to Gothamist.
Engineers reviewing the plans are focused on the weld specification. The approved drawings called for a 2-inch weld every foot rather than a continuous weld down the column length. Eugene Gurevich, a structural engineer with RAND Engineering & Architecture, said it appeared the reinforcement was intended to carry the additional load of the expansion, and raised three unanswered questions: was the reinforcement sufficient, was it installed correctly, and was it inspected? Structural engineer Eric Cowley, reviewing FDNY drone imagery of the buckled members, was more direct: "That's no trivial bend. That's a total failure."
The special inspection firm hired to certify structural steel and welding at the site — Domani Inspection Services — did not respond to requests for comment. GACE Consulting Engineers, which drafted the structural plans, also did not respond.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Department of Investigation have both opened inquiries and requested records from the buildings agency. DOB says its own investigation into the cause of the July 7 incident is ongoing.
The deleted finding is what the city's own system recorded first. Whatever came next, the agency hasn't said.
