Pratica di Shadowing: New York's Buckling Tower: What Happens Now? - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
Creazione lezione...
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We're operating at 235 East 42.
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We have columns partially down on 21 and 22, and we have floors sagging between 21 and 26.
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On July 7, 2026, crowds gathered outside 235 East 42nd Street.
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A building is on the verge of collapsing in midtown Manhattan.
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Bricks falling from a former office building that is being converted into luxury rental units.
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While at the time, its developer described the issues as nothing more than a typical construction mishap,
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how often do emergency services close an entire area for routine purposes?
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This is far from a typical construction accident.
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The north side of that building is crumbling.
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The I-beams are bending like cigarettes in there.
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The building remains unstable.
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Since arriving on scene, we have witnessed additional movement in one of the compromised columns.
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Investigations are still ongoing.
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Now, two months down the line, we can look at some clues as to what the hell happened here
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and try and unpack a little bit of how one of New York's biggest building projects got into such a state.
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If you live in a major city, then you've probably seen police tape before.
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But what you may not have seen is a cordon being enforced because authorities were worried that a building might collapse.
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And that is exactly what happened here just a few weeks ago.
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Situated not far from Grand Central Terminal, 235 East 42nd Street sits among a cluster of offices.
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Opening in 1961 as the Pfizer headquarters, it spent the majority of its life going pretty under the radar.
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The building was 33 stories tall, more than three times as tall as its neighbour.
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Joined at its hip is 219 East 42nd Street, a much shorter development that opened in the early 20th century, standing just 10 stories tall.
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These buildings opened in a different time, in eras defined by a drive for office space, when the term work from home would have been gibberish to most people.
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The landscape today is very different.
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The office is still important to the city, but following the pandemic, vacancy rates shot up.
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Meanwhile, as any resident of New York or regular viewer of the B1M is aware, the city is in the midst of a housing crisis.
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With so many empty or partially empty office buildings and a lot of people needing homes, you might start to see a solution.
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New York certainly did.
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In 2024, the city of Yes for Housing Opportunity was rubber stamped, relaxing rules around converting offices into residential spaces.
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Enter 235 East 42nd Street, which I'm going to refer to going forward as simply 235.
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By 2025, construction was underway on what architects Gensler described as the largest conversion of its kind in New York City history.
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Once open, it'll offer more than 1,600 apartments.
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Now this is where things get challenging.
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The smaller tower here is 219 East 42nd, and that's being taken up to 29 or 30 stories, depending on how you count things like mechanical floors.
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Meanwhile, over here, the bigger tower is 235 East 42nd, and that's having four stories added, taking up to 37 stories overall.
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Basically, these two towers were both constructed half a century apart, but they're now being merged into one giant development.
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To put that into perspective, in the time between 219 and 235 being built, America fought in two world wars, stumbled through the Great Depression,
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and fundamentally overhauled its building processes.
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Now looking back, it's easy to see how much things have changed between the early 1900s and the 1960s,
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but in the moment, it's hard to recognize the speed at which everything around us is evolving.
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Today, a lot of the buildings across New York are designed for people like me, who need a desk, a computer, and a healthy supply of coffee to get our work done.
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Hey, does anybody want coffee?
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And at this rate, I spend so much of my time in my office
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that I'm wondering whether I should just live here.
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I can start by getting rid of this desk and replacing it with a super king, but given how hot this summer has been, I'll be keeping the aircon.
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Okay, it's a bit more complicated than that, but visualizing the move is much more straightforward with Rayon Design.
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You can quickly piece together your blueprints, like my perfect bedroom, adding as much detail as you need thanks to Rayon's massive CAD library.
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And all of this integrated into one place from concept through design
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Now let's get back to Manhattan, because there's an office conversion there that kinda needs our attention.
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You see, the smaller 219 was built in the early 1900s with terracotta and cast iron.
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Meanwhile, the taller 235 is a largely steel structure, using material nearly half as strong as some of the stuff you can get your hands on today.
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And so modernising and and redeveloping those two buildings calls for very different approaches.
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Steel from the 1960s is very, very, very different, believe it or not, from steel work from 2026.
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Chris O'Regan is a Chartered Structural Engineer and the Head of Structural Safety at Francombe Consultancy Group.
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While he's not part of the redevelopment at 235, we dropped him a call the week after it hit the news to ask him what he thought.
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The first thing you do is find out what the structure performs, almost reverse engineer the structure entirely, determine what it can actually support.
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Then if there is any need for strengthening works then you design them, apply them and develop them and work them through.
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So preparing these two buildings from different eras to become a single development of the future is one challenge
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and we've already touched on the second hurdle.
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Converting it from office space into residential space isn't easy.
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There are really strict regulations around natural lights and ventilation in apartment buildings that are different to those regulations for office buildings.
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The plumbing will need an overhaul to serve the different residential units.
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There's the potential for the ceiling heights having to be varied and weight distributions differing between the floors.
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We're talking about adjusting support beams to manage loads and create entirely new spaces for completely new floor plans.
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In fact, in 2023 Moody Analytics reviewed more than a thousand offices in the city
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and of those only three percent were viable for apartment conversions.
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Now, we've actually covered an office to apartment conversion project in New York before.
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In 2023 the 1930s era 1 Wall Street reopened as a luxury apartment building with six additional floors added onto its height.
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That required scrupulous planning to calculate the changing loads.
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Lighter, voided slabs were used for the new floors, while the existing structural beams and columns were strengthened throughout the building.
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Crews also created transfer structures to distribute new loads into the older frame very carefully.
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And because apartments are generally lighter than offices, they could factor in a weight reduction for the overall structure, meaning they could get more out of the older frame.
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It's proof that conversions like this are definitely doable, but come with considerable complexity.
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So what the hell happened here?
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How did 235 East 42nd Street get into such a mess?
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Early on July 7, 2026, construction workers discovered that a steel column on the 21st floor had buckled.
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The fire department was called around 8am and it found a number of sagging floors, cracks and two buckling columns.
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In response, workers on the site were evacuated, followed by a full-scale evacuation of nine nearby buildings, including a school.
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The The area was cordoned off as a frozen zone was imposed, and New York City's mayor announced the structural issues to the public.
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Two structural columns have buckled in addition to multiple cracks and sagging floors.
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The building remains unstable.
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We have witnessed additional movement in one of the compromised columns.
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Later on Tuesday morning, officials confirmed the damage was located to a specific section of the development, not the entire building.
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The firm GACE created the building's engineering plan and it was quick to point out what it believed was the main cause.
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As reported by the Gothamist, GACE's principal Chris Behan moved to blame the trouble on a
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lack of reinforcement from the 19th floor to the top of the 21st floor.
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Earlier reporting by the Gothamist showed GACE's plans did actually call for reinforcement along the two columns that eventually buckled.
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Meanwhile, developer Nathan Burman seemed to agree.
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In an interview on the day of the incident, he claimed the issue may have occurred on the 21st floor
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due to additional stress caused by the wait from the 22nd level upwards.
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That was part of a widening of the top 15 floors.
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Burman went on to say the buckling columns may not have been reinforced properly,
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while the city's Department of Buildings said the structure's steel columns would need to be reinforced.
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Simply put, they were overloaded.
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They buckled in on themselves.
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That's how steel columns, and indeed reinforced concrete, any column really, fails typically.
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They buckle in on themselves.
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In order to prevent that from happening, if I were to wrap my fingers around with a bit of tube, like a toilet paper tube, they would resist that force from buckling.
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So this is what they actually prevented and wanted to do.
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And while a criminal investigation is still ongoing, this gives us some idea as to what may have happened.
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The New York City Department of Buildings is responsible for making sure that codes are met and that building projects are safe,
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so as you can imagine it's going to be a major player in this investigation.
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The Gothamist highlighted a complaint note that was posted
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and then deleted by the NYC Department of Buildings
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which reportedly said the failure to provide steel reinforcement as per approved plans led to the cause of the the incident.
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The following week, The Gothamist claims that the Press Secretary of the Department of Buildings, Andrew Rudansky, said the note was posted by a staff member but that it wasn't accurate,
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so it was corrected the same day.
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However, it would seem to align with the views of GACE and the developer.
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As for the columns themselves, they were reinforced with temporary shoring to provide stability and make it safe for assessments to be made.
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In this particular instance, I do notice that where the columns are buckled, the structures actually cantilevers over sails.
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So you've got the column here and it's over sails like this.
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So it's making it even worse.
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You know, they actually applied a significant load on those particular columns.
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I suspect that is why those two actually buckled rather than the others, because the other columns would have been affected by this as well.
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You look at the actual buckled columns and if they've buckled where's the rest of the load gone?
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Because clearly it's still standing, but where's it gone?
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That's a very loaded question, pun intended.
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As you can see now the roads are open again
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and life here is pretty much continuing as normal but it doesn't mean it's the end of a story.
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For the time being, while we wait on the findings of the investigation, we're working off of fire department reports,
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deleted notes from the department of buildings and reactionary comments from the developer and project engineers.
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Columns buckled and, at least for now, there are claims that they were never properly reinforced.
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If that's the case, then it's a major oversight.
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But ultimately the kind of thing that's better to have been discovered at this point than when the building was fully occupied.
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The compromised section of the development faces a rebuild and, depending on what's discovered, there could be a need to adapt the structural system.
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For the time being, Berman says this is unlikely to be a full demolition job.
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As Chris said, we'll have to wait and see where that load moved after the columns buckled.
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We approached Metroloft for comment, but at the time of publishing this video we hadn't heard back from them.
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It's a nervous period for Berman, who suggested this incident would probably only cost a few extra weeks.
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When you consider the ongoing investigation and the amount of redevelopment work that it would appear is required, that sounds pretty ambitious.
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Cranes reported back in 2024 that lease signings could begin in 2026 with move-ins from 2027.
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And so it's worth remembering a developer is beholden to investors and apartment pre-sales.
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There are wider implications too.
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that lenders and investors in the US are now rethinking projects like this.
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It turns out this isn't the first time 235 has come in for criticism.
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Reports show it had already faced 44 prior complaints against it,
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ranging from falling debris to a worker blowing material off the roof with a leaf blower,
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although emergency services at the time said they found no evidence to suggest that was true.
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What happened at 235 led to safety reviews of a number of office to apartment conversions across five boroughs.
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Three buildings faced stop work orders or partial work pauses
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because of problems ranging from cracking beams to site safety issues and missing paperwork.
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It's too early to say what the long-term consequences of this New York saga will be, but we're going to keep you guys up to date as we get more news and as the investigation moves forward.
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But in the meantime, I think what this really shows for me is just how much we take the construction industry for granted.
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Billions of us all around the world use millions of buildings every day without any incidents.
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There are projects like this happening all around the world every day where nothing's going wrong
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and no one ever hears about them.
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The fact that one ordinary building can go to becoming world news
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because of an incident like this shows just how rare these incidents are
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and actually what a great job construction does most of the time of shaping our world
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and protecting each of us every time we go into a building.
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For me, taking a very glass half full approach, this episode, even though it's terrible, kind of shows how lucky we are.
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This video was sponsored by Rayon Design.
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Don't forget
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that you can try out Rayon Design yourself free of charge by scanning the QR code on screen
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or clicking the link below.
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It massively helps us out here when you guys take the time to go
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and check out our video sponsors so please do go and check out Rayon we would really appreciate it.
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And as always guys if you enjoyed this video
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and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction make sure you're subscribed to the B1M.
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione
Questa lezione di conversazione di livello B2 si basa sul video “New York's Buckling Tower: What Happens Now?”. Le parole che ritornano più spesso: column, floor, buckled. Questo video contiene 169 frasi e 2594 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 15:37. Chi parla ha un ritmo naturale di circa 166 parole al minuto, vicino a una conversazione quotidiana. Il 82% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese; conviene studiare le altre prima di iniziare.
Vocaboli chiave di questo video
Le 15 parole più avanzate del video, con pronuncia e significato:
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| buckle sostantivo | /ˈbʌkəl/ | fibbia |
| structural aggettivo | /ˈstɹʌk(t͡)ʃəɹəl/ | strutturale |
| reinforce verbo | /ˌɹiː.ɪnˈfɔːs/ | rinforzare |
| developer sostantivo | /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/ | sviluppatore, sviluppatrice |
| convert verbo | /kənˈvɝt/ | convertire |
| beam sostantivo | /ˈbiːm/ | trave, asse |
| reinforcement sostantivo | /ˌɹiːɪnˈfɔːsmənt/ | rinforzo |
| sag verbo | /sæɡ/ | inclinarsi |
| compromise sostantivo | /ˈkɑmpɹəˌmaɪz/ | compromesso |
| unstable aggettivo | /ʌnˈsteɪ.bəl/ | instabile |
| investor sostantivo | /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/ | investitore, investitrice |
| sail sostantivo | /seɪl/ | vela |
| strengthen verbo | /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/ | rinforzare, rafforzare |
| sponsor sostantivo | /ˈspɒn.səː/ | sponsor |
| scan verbo | /skæn/ | scrutare |
I phrasal verb che sentirai
| Parola | Significato |
|---|---|
| check out verbo | investigare |
| find out verbo | scoprire |
| point out verbo | additare |
| try out verbo | saggiare, collaudare |
| turn out verbo | risultare |
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso | have witnessed · you've probably seen · have changed |
| Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa | being converted · being enforced · being taken |
Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione
Chi parla usa 25 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come we're, I'm, isn't. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.
- I suoni “sh” e “zh”: structural /ˈstɹʌk(t͡)ʃəɹəl/, partially /ˈpɑɹʃəli/, implication /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/, ventilation /ˌvɛntɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, demolition /ˌdɛm.əˈlɪʃ.ən/
- Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, reinforcement /ˌɹiːɪnˈfɔːsmənt/, cantilever /ˈkantɪliːvə/, evacuate /ɪˈvæk.ju.eɪt/, implication /ˌɪmpləˈkeɪʃən/
I suoni difficili per chi parla italiano:
- /h/ — va soffiata, non è muta: beholden /bɪˈhəʊldən/, overhaul /ˈəʊvəˌhɔːl/
- Consonante finale — senza aggiungere una vocale dopo: columns /ˈkɑləmz/, reinforce /ˌɹiː.ɪnˈfɔːs/, convert /kənˈvɝt/, reinforcement /ˌɹiːɪnˈfɔːsmənt/, sag /sæɡ/
- /æ/ — più aperta della “e”: sag /sæɡ/, scan /skæn/, collapse /kəˈlæps/, massively /ˈmæs.ɪv.li/, evacuate /ɪˈvæk.ju.eɪt/
Come esercitarsi con questo video
- Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
- Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
- Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come buckle, structural, reinforce.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.