There is an unfinished 670-foot luxury residential skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan at 161 Maiden Lane that currently tilts roughly three inches to the north.
The 60-story tower remains abandoned and empty since construction halted around 2019 over foundation issues. Instead of driving deep steel piles into the stable bedrock more than 155 feet below, the developer used a cheaper soil-improvement technique (called jet grouting). The site sits on a 17th-century Dutch landfill along the historic East River which is now compressed unevenly under the extreme weight of the tower making it entirely unsafe. The building remains a costly engineering failure caught in a legal quagmire. Fixing the foundation using deep underpinning is technically possible but economically nonviable. The repair costs would exceed the total value of the property. Tearing it down would cost even more than fixing it, so the building sits empty and in economic limbo.
Watching this video, I couldn’t help but compare this building to the state that many people find themselves in. Have you ever invited a non-Christian to church, only to have them say – “I would probably burst into flames if I stepped inside” , perhaps followed by a chuckle?. Like the building on Maiden Lane they feel they are not spiritually fixable, and beyond repair.
Of course, this is not the case; there is not a single person whom God cannot save who wants to be saved. We remember what Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:12-16,
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”
Others who are also not saved, may like this building, be the product of ignorance and arrogance. Non-fixable yet feeling indestructible. Standing tall but in violation of the building code. Too late for a ‘do over’ and too expensive for a ‘make-over’, and unwilling to do either. Spiritually speaking, they hope that God will change to code just for them, so that heaven will be theirs.
We know from scripture that this will not happen: Consider Acts 10:34,35:
“Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”
And Ephesians 6:9, where Paul writes: “And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”
The building at 161 Maiden Lane sits empty as a warning, for builders not to cut corners. To lay a proper foundation, so that all that follows is not wasted.
In 1 Cor. 3:11, the apostle Paul wrote about a spiritual foundation, saying that “…no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”.
What he meant was that salvation is to be had in no one else. The death of Jesus on the cross is the only basis upon which God forgives our sins. Building upon anything or anyone else produces a building that God refuses to reside in or take ownership of.
Looking ahead to the cross and to life in Christ, Jesus said: ““Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:24-27