The Shaky Problems with Skyscraper Conversions
7/9/202619 min
On Tuesday morning, something potentially very scary happened in New York City. Images of buckling steel beams at the former Pfizer headquarters led to a large evacuation in midtown Manhattan. WSJ’s Peter Grant reports on what happened and what this high-profile setback means for the nationwide trend of converting empty skyscrapers into apartments. Ryan Knutson hosts.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRyan Knutson· Host0:00
[music] Something sudden and potentially very scary happened in New York City on Tuesday morning. People were worried that a skyscraper might fall down. [music] It happened at 235 East 42nd Street in an extremely dense area of Manhattan.
Peter Grant· Guest0:20
This building is right near the Chrysler Building, right near Grand Central Terminal.
Ryan Knutson· Host0:26
Our colleague Peter Grant covers commercial real estate.
Peter Grant· Guest0:30
People saw from the outside that the building seemed to buckle, and that's a very serious situation. It could lead to a collapse. It all started with a report of bricks early Tuesday morning falling from a 37-story high-rise under construction.
Speaker 3· Soundbite0:47
Video from construction workers 21 floors up showing steel bending inside the building. This prompted officials to evacuate nearby buildings. I've been in construction 21 years, and I've never seen a beam bent in half. A lot of disruption in this area, which is particularly busy here in midtown Manhattan. We heard- And so immediately, once people saw this and notified, uh, the authorities, the fire department, the building department, they realized how serious the situation could become, and they sprang into action.
Ryan Knutson· Host1:16
Very quickly, the surrounding streets were blocked off. Everything from a school to a hotel to the Israeli Consulate were evacuated.
Speaker 3· Soundbite1:24
It is a little unnerving knowing that there's a building that is at risk of falling down