New York high-rise scare reveals the challenges of converting offices into housing
- Two steel columns buckled this week inside the former Pfizer headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, prompting evacuations and halting work on one of the nation’s largest office-to-apartment conversions.
- The incident highlights the complex engineering of adaptive reuse projects, increasingly popular for tackling housing shortages by transforming offices underused since the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The ambitious plans involve converting two office buildings – one from 1909, the other the 1960s – into approximately 1,600 apartments.
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- Two steel columns buckled this week inside the former Pfizer headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, prompting evacuations and halting work on one of the nation’s largest office-to-apartment conversions.
- The incident highlights the complex engineering of adaptive reuse projects, increasingly popular for tackling housing shortages by transforming offices underused since the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The ambitious plans involve converting two office buildings – one from 1909, the other the 1960s – into approximately 1,600 apartments.
Sources: The Independent