A 17-story office tower in midtown Manhattan was evacuated due to an unstable basement wall. The building, located on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, houses the UJA-Federation of New York. Fire Department spokesman Jim Long stated that the wall was cracked and collapsing.
The FDNY believes the issue stems from an adjacent empty lot. Recent rainwater saturated the soil in this lot, causing it to push against a non-load-bearing wall in the building's basement,
