Exclusive | NYC Midtown building evacuated over collapse fears is riddled with prior ‘safety’ issues: records
The buckling Midtown hi-rise dramatically evacuated over collapse fears Tuesday was cited multiple times last year for dangerous construction safety violations, The Post has learned.
Read more Midtown NYC building ‘shifting’ and in danger of ‘localized collapse’: officials
The city Department of Buildings slapped seven violations on the 38-story commercial building at 235 E. 42nd St. near Second Avenue between July and December 2025, resulting in a total of more than $32,000 in fines, agency records show.
The violations included the site not adhering to plans laid out in submitted construction documents, a lack of pre-shift safety communication and the failure to report an incident that “resulted in a fatality or injury,” documents show.
The site’s general contractor, Robert Travis of 235 GC LLC, was first dinged in July 2025 when a piece of window glass fell from the eighth floor and hit a sidewalk shed after an “active demo and alteration job.”
The next month, a piece of metal fell off the building from the 33rd floor level and landed on the sidewalk below. Inspectors discovered workers didn’t communicate required information during a pre-shift safety meeting.
In December, a worker also fell 6 feet from a platform ladder while dismantling a crane, DOB documents said. Inspectors later found the ladder was not on a flat, level surface.
More than two dozen bystander complaints also have been submitted to the DOB about the site, where construction started in 2024.
They include an April call reporting debris falling from “high heights” and a March incident where a worker was allegedly “blowing material off of the roof … with a leaf blower.”
In October, a caller told the Buildings Department, “Today, a large item fell and broke through 5 floors and almost hit someone.
Read more Jalen Brunson quietly has surgery for injury that he battled during Knicks championship run
“There are gas machines without proper ventilation. These are hazardous conditions,’’ the person claimed.
Other complainants claimed objects were falling from “high up” and landing on the sidewalk, including electrical equipment, in August.
It’s unclear if the complaints made to the DOB were part of more than a dozen 311 calls made about the site dating back to last May detailing conditions “endangering” workers, as well as debris falling or at risk of doing so.
Some of the callers alleged construction work beyond approved permits and work contrary to city-issued stop-work orders.
A state comptroller’s audit released last week reported that the DOB is significantly less staffed and has a much lower budget than in 2019 — including less money for inspectors.
The Midtown building — a former office site now set for 1,600 apartments and dubbed the most significant office-to-residential conversion in the US according to the Commercial Observer — was evacuated around 8:11 a.m. Tuesday when construction workers spotted two faulty support beams bending and starting to give way.
The structural support scare was reported Tuesday by the site safety manager, according to the DOB.
Fire officials said floors between the 21st and 26th floors were sagging from the pressure.
Read more What Belgium coach told Folarin Balogun after World Cup red card drama exploded
