Buckled Midtown tower's plans weren't peer reviewed. Some engineers say they should've been.

Key Points:

• New York City's Department of Buildings has mandated that the developer behind the city's largest office-to-housing conversion hire an independent engineering firm for a structural review following a structural failure and evacuation in Midtown.
• Experts argue that an independent peer review should have been required initially, especially since the project involves adding 14 new or expanded floors to a 66-year-old building, a significant vertical expansion not currently triggering mandatory peer review under city code.
• The building code only requires peer reviews for very large or tall buildings, but officials and lawmakers are considering lowering these thresholds to prevent future incidents amid a surge in office-to-residential conversions.
• The cause of the structural failure, involving bent steel columns on the 21st floor of the former Pfizer headquarters, remains under investigation; the developer MetroLoft suspects inadequate reinforcement of the columns.
• Industry professionals emphasize that while peer reviews add safety assurance, the failure might also stem from construction errors or oversight, highlighting the complexity of ensuring structural integrity in major renovation projects.