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New York construction scare shows challenges of office conversions
AP News • • nation
Key Points:
- Two steel columns buckled at the former Pfizer headquarters in Manhattan during a major office-to-apartment conversion, prompting evacuations and work stoppages as engineers investigate the cause.
- The project involves converting two office buildings—one from 1909 and another from the 1960s—into about 1,600 apartments, including adding over a dozen stories atop the older structure, presenting significant engineering challenges.
- Experts believe the buckling likely resulted from the added load of the new construction, but emphasize that such setbacks do not undermine confidence in adaptive reuse engineering practices.
- Adaptive reuse is favored over demolition for sustainability and cost reasons, especially in dense urban areas, and is seen as a vital strategy to address housing shortages exacerbated by the pandemic.
- While the incident may prompt reviews of similar projects, industry professionals note that robust building codes and inspections make structural failures rare, and adaptive reuse remains a key part of urban development plans.
