New York City officials have been conducting safety inspections of construction sites across the city this week after a building in Midtown Manhattan became dangerously unstable last week, forcing construction to be halted at the project.
The sweeps are ongoing, and they were initiated by the buckling of two columns last week at a building on East 42nd Street, said Andrew Rudansky, a spokesman for the Department of Buildings. They are part of a widening investigation into what caused the failure, which could include scrutinizing the more than two dozen firms involved in the project, expected to be the city’s largest conversion of offices to apartments.
The scope and target of the sweeps were not immediately clear. But officials with the Buildings Department said that the investigation would include “a massive review of construction documents and reports held by the developer and construction team; interviews with witnesses and responsible parties; a hands-on sweep of the entire construction site; and review of available video and photo evidence.”
A person familiar with the investigation said the inspections had begun on Monday and were focused on sites where firms working on the 42nd Street site were also operating. The person asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.
The sweeps come one week after the Midtown East building became dangerously destabilized and thousands of nearby building occupants were temporarily evacuated. No one was injured.
On Friday, New York City investigators opened a preliminary criminal inquiry into the incident. The probe is in its earliest stages and the scope and target of that investigation are not clear.
It is also unclear which firms the officials are investigating, but the conversion project, the largest of its kind in the country, involved dozens of companies representing developers, engineers and contractors. MetroLoft, the main developer, declined to comment.
One firm responsible for oversight of some of the elements of the 42nd Street site, a private company called Domani Inspection Services, has a record of violations at other recent projects.
It was not clear whether any of the work inspected by Domani — including high strength bolting, steel welding and the structural stability of additions — contributed to the failure of columns on the 21st floor of the building. But a New York Times examination of the inspection company’s record has found that it has been repeatedly cited for missing warning signs at other building projects in the city.
MetroLoft, a prolific developer of commercial-to-residential conversions, has been accused of construction defects at another Manhattan project. Nathan Berman, the founder of the development firm, is a defendant in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit at 443 Greenwich Street, a luxury condominium where residents have complained of leaks and loose brick on the facade. The residents claim that many of the issues stem from a faulty addition made to the top of the building, a onetime factory built in the 19th century.
The incident in Midtown last week inflamed debate about how to solve New York’s housing crisis and the role of conversions, which can be notoriously tricky and expensive.
Work to stabilize the building, which is 37 stories, is ongoing, with workers adding equipment along nearly every floor to shore up the building. It’s unclear when construction will begin again on the project, which is slated to be finished in 2027.
The Buildings Department said that construction crews had installed lightweight poles to help stabilize the building and were replacing those with heavy-duty steel columns.
A third-party engineering firm, Thornton Tomasetti, is overseeing the recovery work and will conduct an investigation into what led to the incident, the Buildings Department said.
