Violations Found at Sites Involving Firms Linked to Unstable Building

The Buildings Department found dozens of code violations and issued several orders to shut down work at New York City construction sites in a sweeping review that began last month after a Midtown high-rise became dangerously unstable and threatened to collapse.

The findings, released by the city in an email on Tuesday, were the outcome of a series of inspections at 180 sites.

Each site involved a firm or individual connected to the Midtown project at 235 East 42nd Street, the high-profile conversion of the former Pfizer headquarters to apartments, according to Andrew Rudansky, a Buildings Department spokesman. Of the 180 sites visited by inspectors, 24 involved office-to-residential conversion projects.

He said inspectors “did not find any hazardous structural issues that posed an imminent danger to public safety during this sweep.”

The incident at the old Pfizer building involved the buckling of two steel beams on the 21st floor, prompting the evacuation of thousands and sending construction crews and city officials scrambling to stabilize the building. An blockysis by The New York Times of photographs of the incident and engineering plans showed that the columns appeared to not be properly reinforced, as indicated on publicly available engineering plans.

The city is continuing its investigation into what went wrong.

The redevelopment of the Pfizer building was being helmed by MetroLoft, a firm known for pursuing big and ambitious conversion projects. Structural work in the building was supposed to be overseen by an independent, third-party firm, Domani Inspection Services, according to city records, which has repeatedly been accused of breaking city rules.

The investigation into the Pfizer building failure will involve “a m***ive review of construction do***ents 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,” according to the Buildings Department.

City inspectors had previously moved to fully or partially shut down work at three other conversion projects.

One was at 222 Broadway, a 30-plus story office building being converted to luxury housing in Lower Manhattan, over issues with a horizontal concrete beam on the roof that had cracked and been repaired. Work remained on hold there on Tuesday.

The Buildings Department also partially shut down work at 77 Water Street over issues they found during an inspection on July 11, including equipment that was being used without proper certification. Work was allowed to resume a few days later.

Some steel work at another high-rise conversion project at 750 Third Avenue also remains on hold.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.