NYC buildings commissioner confident buckling Midtown building is stabilizing after emergency work

City buildings department officials are confident the buckling Midtown high-rise at risk of collapse is “stabilizing” after emergency crews worked overnight to shore up the structure.Workers were able to successfully shore up the under-construction 37-story former Pfizer headquarters on East 42nd Street near Second Avenue — enough to shrink the evacuated “frozen zone” to a few surrounding blocks, Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said.“We are feeling confident that many of the emergency shoring measures that have been put in place as a result of extensive discussions with the building owner, the contractor, their licensed professional, is stabilizing the situation,” Tigani told reporters at a press conference Tuesday night.The “shifting” skyscraper — which is being converted from commercial to residential use — was dramatically evacuated during the morning rush along with eight surrounding buildings as nine blocks were closed down and city officials mounted a desperate effort to avert catastrophe.A third-party engineer has been brought in to “verify and act as another set of eyes” to ensure it was safe for emergency crews to come onto the impacted floors where beams were “bending like cigarattes” and install the emergency shoring measures — including emergency struts or jacks to hold up and stabilize the weak points of the crumbling building. Emergency shoring is a temporary measure implemeted to stabilize the buckling building while investigators and contractors work out a long-term solution to prevent the building from further collapsing, Tigani added.New steel has also been installed to create “stability and [allow] workers and the materials to move into place and keep the building in a stable situation,” the commissioner said.Movement of the former-Pfizer headquarters has been monitored from both inside and outside the building throughout Tuesday and investigators have not noticed any new movement as of Tues...