Pfizer Building

235 East 42nd Street | also 230 East 43rd Street, 232 East 43rd Street | Murray Hill | built 1960

Open on the map8 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1959

    June 4

    Ground is broken for a 32-story tower at Second Avenue and 42nd Street for Pfizer

    In early 1959 plans were filed for a 32-story office tower on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and East 42nd Street, designed by Emery Roth & Sons and built by the Diesel Construction Company. It was meant to house Pfizer's international offices and some of its domestic ones. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 4, 1959.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1961

    April

    Pfizer moves into 235 East 42nd Street, filling 18 floors with 1,000 workers

    In April 1961 Pfizer took occupancy at 235 East 42nd Street, filling 18 floors with about 1,000 employees. The tower was 85 percent occupied when it opened, with early tenants including the manufacturer Electrolux, the Taiwanese mission to the UN, the Alexander Hamilton Institute and a Chase Manhattan Bank branch. The company stayed until its new Hudson Yards headquarters opened in 2023.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 2017

    January 26

    Pfizer hires brokers to sell its two 42nd Street buildings and find a new headquarters

    In January 2017 Pfizer put 235 East 42nd Street, built in 1960, and the neighboring 219 East 42nd Street on the market. Together the two buildings held about 1.2 million square feet. Cushman & Wakefield brokers Josh Kuriloff, Adam Spies and Douglas Harmon were hired to sell them and to search for Pfizer's next headquarters. Pfizer hoped to sell by the end of the following year and to relocate into rented space in the first half of 2019 at the earliest.

    Source: bisnow.com

  4. 2018

    Pfizer signs a 20-year lease for 15 floors at Hudson Yards

    In April 2018 Pfizer announced a 20-year lease for 15 floors at Hudson Yards, in the 65-story Spiral tower that Tishman Speyer was building between West 34th and 35th Streets. A spokesperson said a substantial majority of the 3,200 employees at 235 East 42nd Street, the company's home since 1961, would move there. The move was not expected to be complete before 2022.

    Source: biopharmadive.com

  5. 2024

    Pfizer takes back a 36-foot medical-history mural that the new owners would not keep

    The 235 East 42nd Street building held Nikos Bel-Jon's Medical Research Through the Ages, a 36-by-11-foot mural of tin and aluminum panels showing Hippocrates, Alexander Fleming, Louis Pasteur and other figures. In 2024 the conversion's developers did not plan to keep it, and Bel-Jon's daughters could not move it themselves. Pfizer ultimately agreed to take the mural back.

    “Bel-Jon's daughters were also unable to relocate their father's mural on their own, and ultimately Pfizer agreed to take back the mural.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2024

    June 25

    Borough president announces the old Pfizer headquarters will become 1,500 apartments

    In June 2024 Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said that the vacant former Pfizer headquarters near Second Avenue would be turned into 1,500 apartments. Levine called it the largest conversion in New York City history, and added that such projects needed to include affordable units.

    Source: nbcnewyork.com

  7. 2026

    July 7

    Columns buckle in the half-converted tower and nearby buildings, including a school, are evacuated

    Reports of falling bricks around 8 a.m. on July 7, 2026 sent firefighters to the tower, then being converted to about 1,600 apartments. Officials found two buckled columns on the 21st and 22nd floors and floors sagging between the 21st and 26th. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the situation extremely serious, and a school with 400 students was among the buildings emptied. Drones watched the structure so no one had to go inside.

    Source: inquirer.com

  8. 2026

    August

    Investigators find eight more improperly reinforced columns after the buckling scare

    After the July evacuation, the buckling was blamed on the weight of the floors added during the conversion, with no reinforcement of the existing columns. Developer Metro Loft said it would rebuild the damaged floors and tear down and rebuild all 15 of the newly added floors, and the city opened a criminal inquiry. In August 2026, investigators found that eight other columns had also been improperly reinforced.

    “Subsequent investigations in August 2026 found that eight other columns had been improperly reinforced, apart from those that had buckled.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 26 buildings with stories in Murray Hill