Trouble at the former Pfizer headquarters on E. 42nd Street in Midtown has raised serious questions about New York City’s push to convert vacant office buildings into housing under City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. On July 7th, two structural columns on the 21st floor buckled while the 37-story building was undergoing a massive office-to-residential conversion, causing floors to sag, forcing the evacuation of the construction site and nearby buildings, and prompting fears that the structure could collapse. As this is the largest office-to-residential conversion in the city, projected to yield 1,600 apartments, it’s amazing that the Department of Buildings and affiliated agencies tasked with monitoring this project did such a poor job. The City currently has a lack of inspectors, which contributed to the lack of oversight, and upon further review of similar conversions, two other office-to-residential projects were halted or partially halted following the 42nd Street incident. Putting sweeping changes in place without the personnel to make sure execution is safe is a recipe for disaster.