San Francisco’s Millennium Tower Continues to Sink

A good stiff wind. TIMBER!

A 3.5 earthquake. Longest one-storey building in the world.

Did the condo board squabble about a $ 100 Million assessment?

Dismantle this IMMEDIATELY.

How are re-sales?

Five inches of lean doesn’t seem like nothing for a building that tall.

OMG. Run!

Another Surfside but much worse.

It’s in San Francisco. Any lean is crazy dangerous. The people that bought those homes are insane and clearly have a death wish. San Francisco!

They should just hire David Cop-a-feel to levitate that building.

R6 I believe you're completely unaware of this building's history, and haven't read the article. The TOTAL tilt is presently 22" leaning toward Fremont side. The entire structure has also sunk almost 20". Regardless of overall size, this is almost as bad as the "Tofu Buildings" in China.

I can’t believe this could happen in this day and age, but I guess I overestimate intelligence and integrity and underestimate greediness.

It’s probably time to knock this building down before there’s an earthquake that just lets it topple over because of the shit job that was done. Anyone who worked on this from both an architectural and engineering standpoint she’ll probably never be allowed to work again. Perhaps we can exchange them for some decent people who got left in Kabul

I work one block away from this building - thank Christ for COVID now keeping me in my home 2 miles away.

I have long been fascinated with this building, and when I'd walk by it I would see chalk getting added to the sidewalk below, getting ready for the repair work. Then the lockdowns happened, and I have only been down to my old building once since then - I had seen scaffolding up at the base, and tractors everywhere doing their work. I had thought it was under control.

I hope nobody is hurt by this building and its dangerous future.

This is hilarious. I think this was the first of the more recent tall buildings built in SF. (20 years or so?)

When they fix the foundation, will they push the sunk part back up to even out the top floors?

It can’t just be “torn down” - it has to be carefully dismantled. It might actually cost more to “unbuild” it than to build it in the first place, what with all the lawsuits.

Willie Brown has a lot to answer for.

R14: I also work a block away, but WFH will hopefully keep me out of the path of being crushed by this disaster when the big quake brings it down.

WHF?

Acronym Definition WHF Warhammer Fantasy (gaming) WHF Women's Heart Foundation (formerly Women's Heart Research Foundation) WHF Work from Home WHF Washington Health Foundation ( Seattle, WA) WHF Wildlife Heritage Foundation (UK) WHF Weekly Hot Fix WHF Web Hosting Forum WHF World Heart Federation WHF World Halal Forum (trade conference) WHF Women's Health Foundation WHF World's Healthiest Foods (book) WHF Working from Home WHF White House Fellow(ship) WHF World Hovercraft Federation (sporting club) WHF Wesley Heritage Foundation (Durham, NC) WHF Wycombe Holiday Flats (UK) WHF Wright's Haven Farm (Limington, ME) WHF Westcott House Foundation WHF World Hockey Federation WHF Wildlife Health Fund WHF Winhistory-Forum (German computer forum) WHF Wannabees, Heros and Fruits (German Online Community) WHF Wagner Hills Farm (British Columbia, Canada)

Think of the photo ops.

R19, and the relevance of your comment to “WFH” would be …?

WFH = Working From Home. How can you come through over a year of Covid and not know this?

Maestro:

A tower in San Francisco? What could go wrong?

I feel bad for all the people who have apts in the tower. They are all worth nothing

R22 obviously R19 is old and "retired"

I think we had a pretty good thread about this months ago. It's so unfortunate for the buyers.

Reading the article makes me think how amazing it is that so many buildings don't have problems like this - the engineering and construction is so impressive.

"When they fix the foundation, will they push the sunk part back up to even out the top floors?"

Would it be easier to bring sink the rest of it to equal it out? Either one sounds incredibly difficult.

Millennials are now engineers. This is what happened.

Some funny reviews for the building!

⭐ my apartment moved 40 cm down in the last year or so. now the view isn't that great any more.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ After years of going around and around in circles with many doctors. They have finally diagnosed me with one leg 3 inches shorter than the other. As such I find this the perfect place to live.. for some reason the building seems to cure me. It's great to literally roll out of bed in the morning and see everything level... until I hit the pavement outside.. then the issue curiously returns

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A great place to die with your family. A+++ higher recommend!

⭐ Pee hits my leg at night depending on how I stand due to the angle of the tilt. Easy clean up but still.

⭐ Dogs love it. Balls roll on their own.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Millennium Tower is leaning mostly to the Left, that's why I support it.

R28 they should just take the loss and dismantle the building now, the repair work they are trying not only very costly (more than $100 million) but also too many questions and unknown factors, whether it will be able to "fix" the sinking/tilting, or it could bring more damages and speed up its inevitable collapse.

Well, if it topples, what of it? There are only poors down on the ground. No one will miss them, but several Lloyds underwriters will join them if this building goes down.

[quote] It’s probably time to knock this building down before there’s an earthquake that just lets it topple over because of the shit job that was done

This is America. We don't plan ahead. We let everything go right to shit and then the taxpayers are forced to pay 10 times the amount cleaning up the disaster

But more importantly, we don't ever really hold any rich people or corporations responsible for their fuck ups. It's just easier for the rich/corporations to do nothing. They know that when it all goes to shit, the government will clean up their mess

Have you seen the roads in California lately? Nobody's been cleaning up the mess since the last time that Trump-loving queen Scott Pressler showed up.

R34, if some giant problem occurred on a private road (because of a lack of maintenance) that caused lots of death/destruction, the government would clean it up

The government ALWAYS cleans up the messes of corporations and rich people. It never really holds them accountable. The worst a rich person/corporation can usually get is a fine. And it's usually a very small fine compared to what the government has to pay out to clean up these messes. These corporations can cause billions worth of damage and get a $20 million dollar fine.

They ought to have to repay the government every penny

San Francisco is an insatiable bottom.

Just rebrand it as a tourist attraction. Worked for us!

It's a metaphor for the city itself.

Does it have homeless people shitting outside of it?

Think of this tower as a symbol of the entire state of California. Doomed.

If this building topples, the other skyscrapers next to it will suffer damage, including Salesforce Tower. I'd imagine there are already lawyers lining up around this.

[quote]If this building topples, the other skyscrapers next to it will suffer damage,

It is only August and we already have our understatement of the year.

It’s leaning to the northwest; the Salesforce Tower is one block to its southwest. If the Millennium Tower collapses in the same direction it’s currently leaning, it would squash a bunch of buildings along Fremont (and block Market Street), but probably wouldn’t affect the Salesforce Tower. Unfortunately.

Why the Salesforce hate? As towers go it's not that bad. It looks great from Tank Hill. And the Salesforce Garden n top of the Transbay terminal is fabulous, especially he Giant Brazilian Rhubarbs. Pray they won't be destroyed in the inevitable Millennium Tower collapse.

[quote] Pray they won't be destroyed in the inevitable Millennium Tower collapse.

Pray the destruction is minimal? If prayer works or if “god” gives a fuck, why not pray that it doesn’t collapse in the first place?

R44, I can see it from my window. I might not hate it as much as most others in SF do, but I still think it’s way out of proportion to the rest of the skyline, and architecturally uninteresting. It looks like it belongs in Hong Kong or Dubai, not here. (In fact it greatly resembles the International Finance building in HK.)

R43, maybe you are a doctor of physics, but Salesforce tower is one HALF block to the SW of Millennium. I believe from being downtown that there will most likely be some effect on some portion of Salesforce Tower, even if it's a bounce off from other buildings affected.

It was a setup.

Dear pedant @r47, from Fremont to 1st might be considered a “half-block” in SOMA,* but only because the distances between numbered streets are so large. The two buildings are separated by 300 feet, which is longer than a standard Manhattan block.

And another thing: Skyscrapers don’t “bounce” unless they’re made of rubber, which the MT manifestly is not.

* And before you snidely remind us that those buildings are in the “Financial District”: that area is literally South of Market.

Chill, guys. It's just Frisco. It really doesn't matter.

Salesforce is the greatest company on earth and therefore Salesforce Tower is the greatest skyscraper on earth. We wouldn't put our name on it otherwise.

[quote] Why the Salesforce hate? As towers go it's not that bad.

It looks like a dildo.

R50 Only a moron would refer to San Francisco as "Frisco"

My point, R52. Is a dildo towering over SF a bad thing?

Silly, R53. It's called Frisco all over the world.

Only in SF do the locals and arrivistes lose their shit about it. Go ahead. It doesn't make you special.

I imagine when everyone living there cooks breakfast in the morning the eggs always slide to one side of the skillet. P.S. if I had a parent or grandparent who lived there and refused to move I'd hire a lawyer to have them put under a conservatorship.

Even if it is initially cost prohibitive, dismantling it can potentially save lives. No one really knows when THE BIG ONE is coming. They should not delay.

FFS: dismantle it

great lesson in corporate hubris

My friend lives in the building. I will not go visit him.

R57 - unfortunately, the cost of human life is never a factor for rich investors or government. People are expendable. Profits aren’t.

Silly, R60. That's what life insurance is for.

Not that you could buy any when the company sees you lived in that building. But in theory.

R41 Yes, I'd say so myself about the lawyers, albeit at a distance!

One good thing is, when it finally does fall, there will be dozens of cameras to capture it, and then we all get to watch!!! Too cool!!

Do banks still loan money for condo purchases in this building?

Not sure R64, but some sales of condo units have occurred this year, with the sellers taking about a ~$100K haircut.

I think like the Champlain Towers, it’s going to fall quickly without needing an earthquake. It’s sinking much faster than anticipated. It’s not like buildings of that height and weight can indefinitely continue to tilt in one direction.

If the a Millennium Tower doesn't collapse first, there's a high probability the tenants will burn to death someday:

A sinking and tilting skyscraper in San Francisco is now at risk of a major cladding fire, according to a report.

The investigation looked at the safety of the 58-storey Millennium Tower, which in March of this year was found to have sunk 17 inches (43 centimetres) and tilted 14 inches (36 centimetres) since completion in 2008.

It found that the movement had dislodged the curtain wall away from the main structure, leaving a gap where smoke and fire could quickly spread.

Engineering company Allana Buick & Bers, who conducted the enquiry, drew the conclusions after looking at two areas of the building's facade. But the company suggested that the same was likely to be found across the entire structure, endangering the lives of its residents.

"These openings represent a breach in the fire and smoke safety barrier, which is a life and safety hazard to the occupants," it said.

Investigation prompts further action

Allana Buick & Bers was commissioned to produce the report by the homeowner's association, on behalf of the tower's occupants.

Its findings were picked up by San Francisco news channel NBC Bay Area and – in light of the fatal recent fire at Grenfell Tower in London – have triggered alarm.

The local fire department is reportedly looking into the situation further, while San Francisco supervisor Aaron Peskin has ordered the city's Department of Building Inspection to verify the independent report.

"The whole thing is just really disturbing and troubling," he told NBC Bay Area.

"Not only do all the condo owners have the right to have that information," he continued. "But the city should have that information, so we can impose the kind of fixes that have to be imposed."

Report commissioned after resident noticed smell

Designed by Handel Architects, the Millennium Tower is currently the tallest residential building in San Francisco, and the city's third tallest overall.

Allana Buick & Bers' investigation of the luxury condominium tower was instigated by resident Paula Pretlow, who noticed a strange odour in her home. The spread of the smell is now believed to have travelled through the gap in the facade.

Speaking to NBC Bay Area, Pretlow initially received the report in December 2016, [bold] [italic] but the safety warning was blacked out. [/bold] [/italic] She said she has spent the past year since sourcing the missing details.

Pretlow is among many unhappy condo owners currently residing in the high-rise. Upon its completion it boasted some of the city's most expensive apartments, but these have fallen significantly in price, as a result of the sinking.

Tower found to be sinking earlier this year

This sinking was discovered through analysis produced by Arup. Its latest research, published in July 2017, stated that the building had descended two inches (five centimetres) in just six months.

Millennium Partners, the property company behind the building, responded to the news by employing engineers to come up with a solution to stop further dropping, and also a way to prop the building back up again.

At the time, the developers claimed that the building was still safe to live in, despite its excessive settlement.

Dezeen contacted Millennium Partners for comment but is yet to receive a response. But the company has recently taken up the issue of wall problems with Texas-based cladding consultant behind the building Curtainwall Design Consulting – it filed a lawsuit against the firm last month.

People have been building skyscapers in wetlands like New Orleans and Chicago for generations. You don't build on pilings, you sink a concrete raft counterweight to hold the building up. What fucking morons these people were.

The cladding issue is the same problem that led to the deaths in the Grenfell Tower fire in London.

I bet this building ends up being condemned.

I watched a YouTube video on it. This building actually won engineering awards when it was first built. It was also recommended that they build down into the bedrock, but the developers cheaped out and basically built the piles on wet sand as had been done with much smaller buildings. Engineers apparently cautioned from the start the way it was being built was problematic given the size of the building, but their concerns were ignored and swept under the carpet. You wonder if the developers said fuck it and just crossed their fingers, or made sure they could never be found liable.

I predicted this years ago!

The Mia: cut thirty floors off the top and rehome those poor tenants to Oakland.

The moral of that story, R71 - don’t trust Italian engineering.

I remember reading how the tilting created the wall/fire problem many years ago but then the stories disappeared. Thank you for turning the spotlight back on.

Gay men in San Francisco have always dealt with their piles without complaint, so why is this a problem?

9/11 taught us that even the tallest towers collapse straight down into a heap. They don’t fall onto other buildings, though these can be damaged by the falling debris.

Windows have broken a few times, or at least severely cracked by the sinking and shifting. There have been cases of tiles coming loose and popping off walls, and huge cracks forming in both ceilings and walls. How frightening it must be to live there. I can't magine why there are still prospects for these units, and recent purchases.

R77 - I’d be afraid of walking by and getting decapitated by falling glass. We have a glass building where I live that’s had glass panels come smashing to the ground. The building is about 5 years old.

14 condos at Millennium tower were sold in the past year. It looks like there's still an opportunity for owners to get out if they want. They might have to take a loss but I'd rather take that than wait for the whole building to topple over one day.

R78 Yes, there's certainly that threat as well...I should think the management company or condo board ought to put up signs redirecting any unnecessary foot traffic. People have been milled in Chicago numerous times by window panes or shards falling from tall buildings.

^ killed

R76 The Twin Towers came straight down because they were built into bedrock, and were not leaning at the time.

R55 Not really. It is only called Frisco in trailer parks all over the world. Not in civilized circles.

"milled" works too, and is very descriptive

[quote] to reduce to fine particles by grinding

Those involved with designing and building highrises are always cutting corners, sometimes in the most unexpected ways (until others stumble upon them the hard way).

I'll never forget this story that I read sometime back. Poor Reginald Tucker:

CHICAGO -- A young lawyer who raced down a skyscraper corridor without wearing his glasses crashed through a window and plunged 39 stories to his death during an early Fourth of July party.

Police said portions of the man's body were scattered around the street near the 41-story Prudential Building in Chicago's downtown area. Several horrified onlookers attending holiday celebrations heard the glass shatter and saw him fall to his death.

Authorities said Reginald Tucker, 29, attended a party his law firm gave Tuesday night on the 31st floor, then went up to its 39th floor offices and was racing through the corridors with a co-worker. The building's higher floors provided an excellent view of Chicago's fireworks display.

James Allison, spokesman for the law firm, said Tucker usually wears contacts but was not wearing them Tuesday night because one of them was scratched. He said Tucker's contacts and his glasses were found on his desk.

'He obviously needed contacts or glasses to see,' Allison said. 'He had neither on at the time. I didn't realize how poor it (Tucker's eyesight) was.'

Police Sgt. Booker Porter said Tucker and a colleague were 'gaming around, running down the corridors. When he got to the glass, he just went on.'

Police and Allison both said Tucker was not drinking. Police ruled the death accidental.

Hundreds of people attending a lakefront fireworks show and the Taste of Chicago food festival were in the area when Tucker fell.

'I was standing at the corner and we heard this big plunk after a shattering of glass,' said David Wellman, whose car was covered with blood from the accident. 'It sounded like an explosion when it hit.'

'It happened after the fireworks were over,' said Robert Wright. 'I was standing across the street and I heard some glass break. I looked up, and saw a man falling from the window. It took about 10 seconds for him to hit, and when he hit he went everywhere.'

Another lawyer who crashed to his death from inside a skyscraper

Poor Garry Hoy, 1996 Darwin Award winner. 😬

They should build a sturdy buddy structure for the tower to lean on while they pile drive its bowels.

Cheers R84

From R86 link… Autodefenestration. Love that word. Going to work it into a work conversation everyday next week.

[quote]They should build a sturdy buddy structure for the tower to lean on while they pile drive its bowels.

^ A Marjorie Taylor-Greene to Matt Gaetz's incarcerated future, if you will.

Thank you r91, but I won't.

R91, she only has three toes and webbing per foot; that's not a buddy you can lean on.

I never will forget Jeanette MacDonald...

Please more stories on autofenestrating lawyers!

R95 Sounds downright depraved, doesn't it? Ha!

autoDEfenestrating!

R39 Liza? Is that you?

I knew a lawyer who autodefenestrated twice.

They'll investigate the tenants and find obese clog dancers who own large aquariums on the leaning side.

New sales will be sizist: "We only sell to tiny folk who shuffle their feet."

R99 I hope it wasn't in front of a judge!

There's also the terrifying saga of the 59 story Citicorp building in midtown Manhattan. Due to a combination of design miscalculations and the tower's construction firm skimping on specifications, it might have toppled during winds as low as 70 mph, causing a domino effect on the surrounding skyscrapers and potentially costing tens of thousands of lives. It took years to fix, during which time the situation was kept secret.

[quote]In the original design, potential wind loads for the building were calculated incorrectly. The flaw was discovered by Diane Hartley, an undergraduate student at Princeton University who was writing a thesis on the building, and was communicated to the firm responsible for the structural design. LeMessurier was subsequently lauded for acknowledging his error and orchestrating a successful repair effort. Estimates at the time suggested that the building could be toppled by a 70-mile-per-hour (110 km/h) wind, with possibly as many as 200,000 people killed as a result. The crisis was kept secret until 1995 and Hartley had no knowledge of the significance of her work until after that time.

R102 That's a rather fascinating story;I watched a YT vid about it earlier this year.

These condos are nothing to die for.

Silicon valley venture capitalists, russian oligarchs and trust fund brats are undermining basic building regulation.

They should just fill it with homeless people's poop. You know they'll be a never-ending supply.

The developers are Trumptards from New York

I'm sure 24 hour cameras are now being set up around the building just as they were once set around Mount St. Helens.

I pray tourists flock to it for pictures of each "holding it up".

Short buses filled with club-footed children line the streets.

Suburbanites lining up with jello molds to use the refrigerators...

The HOA are $1,500 a month and it’s sinking? Fuck that.

"Sinking" is the developer's word.

Avoid using it.

I suggest, "falling slowly."

"Reclining"

"A Timothy Olyphant hello"

"The One Cheek Sneak Pose"

Wills main focus is preserving the monarchy so he can be King one day. He wouldn't hesitate to help Charles marginalize the Yorks and send them packing into obscurity, if it means stabilizing support for the monarchy.

The York princesses are a nuisance that Charles will take care of after he deals with Prince Grifter/that awful woman.

For R76

This is why all the best towers are made of ivory.

On youtube there is a clip from the movie "When Time Ran Out" titled "Time to leave the Gilmore". In it Paul Newman is telling the residents to leave now with him while James Francisco says it's perfectly safe to stay (he's actually more convincing). It's well suited to this topic so perhaps someone could post it here.

I just saw this on the local SF news. The original foundation may not take the stress of the new bedrock piles. It all seems like a grand experiment with no guarantees.

Take it apart. Piece by piece.

Sum ting wong!

$𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 "𝐟𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐬" 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝

The $100 million retrofit project – 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒂𝒙𝒑𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓𝒔 – was supposed to keep the building from sinking and tilting more and stabilize property values. But since work began on installing support piles in May of last year, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓. To stem the damage, engineers opted to cut the number of new foundation support piles from 52 to 18.

As it stands, with the additional tilting since work on the underground wall along Fremont started in May, the tower is now leaning at least 29 inches at the top at the northwest corner.

That leaves a shrinking margin for error, given Hamburger’s caution that the tower’s safety systems -- like elevators and sewage lines -- could stop working should the tower lean 40 inches or more.

-----------------------

The politically connected developers, consultants and contractors will scam another hundred million before they admit it needs to be demolished.

Insurance companies, class action suit lawyers, who else is paying special attention to this?

I am, r21. I'm also immune from suit.

[quote] People have been building skyscapers in wetlands like New Orleans and Chicago for generations. You don't build on pilings, you sink a concrete raft counterweight to hold the building up. What fucking morons these people were.

- Thank you r68.

Let Chicago be the living museum it is for how it's done right.

It's time humans stop this shit.

I thrill to the sight of a magnificent skyline. In NY City and Chicago, I am one awed hay-shaker from Flyoverville.

But those skylines were constructed in a different era with actual though put into basic laws of physics.

What is it about us humans that it isn't enough to be in looking upwards in awe at a star filled sky or tall trees traced entirely in snow against winter slate-gray sky?

Nope, to some, there is a need for validation by a perch that looks down on other humans and matter.

Well, have at it. I'll stick to ground.

though- thought.

At this point the tilt is about the same as it was on the Titanic 23 minutes after it hit the iceberg.

24 minutes now.

That quote about how the tower is perfectly safe seems designed to be quoted ironically by all major news outlets once this mess finally collapses and kills 2000 people.

9/11 again. Without the planes.

i was reading some of the internet comments about it and one that made me laugh went: "I'll bet no one has a pool table there"

r129 reminded me of this

The Wikipedia entry for the building/s is quite interesting and the section on Sag and Tilt especially.

There is a list of awards won by the building, and quite rightly not one for design. We're it to be replaced over night by any of several of the bank operations tallest skyscrapers of North Carolina, it would be a long time before any eagle-eyed observer took note. Give or take a few stories, it's interchangeable with 1 Bank of America Center, or Three Wells Fargo Center, or PNC Plaza, or 550 South Tryon.

My friend Eileen just bought a condo there. She loves it.

lol, r132

[quote] San Francisco’s Millennium Tower Continues to Sink

Goddamn Millennials.

Can’t even stand up straight.

Just terrifying.

A workaholic's dream! Live high in the sky amidst the office towers of San Francisco, gazing down at the mechanical floors of nondescript banking centers and corporate headquarters of you don't know what, seeing your own reflection in your neighbor's window glass, and, here a there, a sliver view of the bay.

Enjoy the low 80" front doors and 8'10" (maximum) ceiling heights for that sprawling, low-slung corporate but cozy office aesthetic. And enjoy as a special buyer's incentive a discount for a preferred Millennium Tower space planning and interior design group to fill your new home with furniture not only fit for an executive suite, but sold off from a never opened executive suite (just there, past that building, see the other one just behind it? Covid. WFH. The offices readied but never used...that's how we got you such a great deal on a dining table that looks like it came from a conference room? It really did come from a conference room! The kitchen island that looks like an executive desk? It is an executive desk? The lobby and waiting room sofas, chairs, occasional tables? You guessed it!

R136, I think the doors are taller than 80.” If you look at photo 5, the refrigerator is probably 80” high and comparing the fridge height to the ceiling height agrees with the max ceiling height of 8’10” (at most, if I hadn’t read your post I would have guessed lower). But the door in that photo is higher and in other photos you can see that the doors are almost as high and the lower ceiling heights (which looks to be about a foot lower than the max). . A 6’6” man in shoes is uncomfortable walking through an 80” doorway if it’s not what he is used to. I can’t believe they would go that low for doors.

It is weird how low the ceilings are, though. Thanks for pointing that out. The orange marble bathroom is oddly dated for a building that was completed in 2009.

The low ceilings mean more stories for a given height, which means more weight. I wonder if that is contributing in any way.

So basically The Towering Inferno without the inferno.

R137: I would have guessed lower on the ceiling heights as well, R137. My source, such as it is, for the 8'10' figure is a sales listing for 301 Mission #25B:

[quote]This prime residence presents soaring 11’ceilings atop the highest floor of the Millennium Tower’s Residences. This exclusive 25th floor condo is located on only one of 4 floors in the entire 60-story Tower that “exceeds” the building’s standard 8’10” ceiling height on all other floors; a Millennium Tower rarity.

Having long lived with tall ceilings and living now in a place where very high ceilings are common, I am spoiled. A 10' or 11' ceiling can be too low in some rooms; it all depends on the space but the idea that 8'10' is somehow compatible with the concept of luxury seems crazy. Luxury is in large measure volume and scale and proportion, and those things don't happen with 8'-something ceiling heights.

I was guessing at the 80' door height as a standard height because it just looks so low, but I'm sure you're right, it's a bit taller -- and would almost need to be to get furniture and artwork in and out. (But what a mean looking door it is!) And look how cluttered the low ceiling is encased beams and mechanicals, smoke and heat sensors, Ikea grade lamp fixtures (to match the Ikea brown-tone wood effect in the kitchen), and everywhere shitty little $15 air vent covers. Luxury. Like the architectural feature made of a wine cooler.

One would like to think that they gave more thought to the engineering than to the architecture, but...

𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞

Millennium Tower fix engineers have scrapped an elaborate strategy designed to prevent more tilting at the troubled high-rise as they push to complete the project – 𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈, but monitoring data suggests is paying off so far.

Back in June, after the building tilted nearly three more inches to the west toward Fremont Street in a matter of months, engineers halted work on an underground support wall along Fremont. They proposed continuing to work around the corner along Mission Street, then propping up the building on one corner by extending the foundation and attaching it to piles already sunk to bedrock. The prop-up strategy, engineers said, would support the tower enough to prevent any more tilting to the west when work resumed on that shoring wall designed to protect Fremont Street.

But monitoring reports on file with the city show last month, crews resumed digging along Fremont Street – without first propping up the structure at the corner.

Documents show the first of the newly installed piles on Fremont went in Oct. 8. So far, there has been no “noticeable impact” on the structure’s tilt, said lead engineer Ronald Hamburger in a statement.

“Resumption of shoring wall work on Fremont street is intended to move the project towards an earlier conclusion according to the original schedule,” Hamburger said, adding that the work is subject to constant oversight and cannot go forward each day without his release.

Millennium Tower Association spokesman Doug Elmets said in a statement that the city’s appointed engineering and design review panel signed off on scrapping the corner prop-up plan, but city officials say Hamburger’s team made the final call on how to proceed.

Elmets added, “we resumed work on Fremont Street a month ago without any further tilting.”

“They’re gambling,” says veteran geotechnical engineer Bob Pyke, a longtime critic of the fix. He says the work being done along Fremont Street to finish that underground wall is essentially the same digging that led to the tower’s leaning nearly three more inches in the first part of the year.

Pyke says the soil being removed to construct the wall serves to buttress the sides of the tower’s foundation against more tilting. Although tilting data is holding steady so far, Pyke is skeptical that will continue given the project’s troubled track record.

“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒆𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚'𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓,” Pyke says.

Meanwhile, the homeowners association has alerted residents about the resumed work along Fremont, saying the goal is to hasten project completion. The association warns that residents can expect a new round of jackhammering as crews dig along Mission Street to extend the foundation out to those existing support pilesthat have been sunk to bedrock.

They didn't shore ho the corner of the building before they started driving piles? In San Francisco? Seems like incompetent architects as well as construction workers. Good grief.

It’s unbelievable that apartments for sale are in the millions.

𝐒𝐅'𝐬 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲

While the tower appears stable on the Mission side, new rooftop-based monitoring data shows the tower is now tilting a half inch more to the west than before being supported on the north side.

Despite initial progress in the first phase of the so-called fix earlier this year, the sinking and leaning Millennium Tower in San Francisco is now tilting more to the west than ever, according to monitoring data reviewed by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit.

The tower is currently leaning more than 29 inches at the northwest corner of Fremont and Mission streets, much of the added tilt occurring during the digging needed to prepare to support the tower along two sides.

But earlier this year, fix engineers saw signs of progress when the building was partially supported by six piles sunk along the base of its north side along Mission Street. While the tower appears stable on the Mission side, new rooftop-based monitoring data shows the tower is now tilting a half inch more to the west than before being supported on the north side.

“As far as remedial work goes, this is just a mess,” said veteran geotechnical engineer Bob Pyke, a long time skeptic of the $100 million plan to fix the troubled tower. “You spend all this money, but you still have an uncertain result long term.”

In responding to questions about the tower, engineers in charge of the project cast doubt on the reliability of the rooftop-based data they had cited when they declared some early success.

The engineers have relied on two types of measurement to determine lean. One reflects rooftop measurements, the other, foundation-based determinations.

Back in January, fix engineer Ron Hamburger pointed to rooftop-based monitoring data as reflecting early success with the reversal of some of the tower’s western tilt following the transfer of the some of the tower’s load onto piles along Mission Street to the northwest corner.

But in recent weeks, the rooftop data is reflecting the loss of the improvement and a trend of worsening tilt. As a result, the tower is now leaning about a half-inch more to the west than before it was first supported along Mission.

In a statement, Hamburger indicated that the rooftop data is prone to weather fluctuations. He pointed to foundation-based data as being more reliable.

Foundation-based monitoring data fluctuated less when the tower was partly transferred to six piles in January.

It currently shows the tower is tilting more than ever to the west, but only by about a quarter of an inch. Hamburger said he considers that amount of added tilt “negligible.”

“We are fully confident that following transfer of the remaining design load to the piles,’’ Hamburger told us in a statement, “there will be no further …. movement of the roof to the west.”

But Pyke says the monitoring data proves the tower is once again defying fix engineers’ expectations. At the moment, Pyke says, there’s no way to know if the tower will work as hoped and stop tilting after some of the load is shifted to piles rooted to bedrock on the west side.

Some good real estate bargains to be had there

My cousin Eileen lives in one of the upper floors and claims she doesn't notice the tilt.

Leaning Tower of Doomloop

My cousin Eileen moved to NYC from Ohio.

R67

I happened to see the Grenfell Tower while on a train from London to Windsor in 2017 and it was horrifying: a black blight standing out above the surrounding area. I guess this building was built before that cladding was realized to be dangerous.

Della, are you still around?

My aunt Irene lived in a building that had the same problem in Tokyo.

Australia and Canada are infamous for having poorly constructed high rise condos.

[quote] Australia and Canada are infamous for having poorly constructed high rise condos.

and San Francisco

My cousin Lurleen lived in a lean-to outside Lexington. Thought it was sure fit to blow over in the big storm of '88, but it held. But after that, it leaned-to a lot more.

The people in that building can't seem to sell their condos, at. discount, yet folks want to complain that there are no homes available. Bullshit, that tower is available.

R152 Does yout cousin Lurleen still have her beauty shop in the same strip mall as my uncle Cleotis' used tire bidness?

The next earthquake will take care of this problem.

That would be great if it fell and hung up on another tower as it did. It would become an Iconic image.

Well, I guess it's fortunate that San Francisco is not prone to earthquakes or this might be a real issue.

[Quote] Australia and Canada are infamous for having poorly constructed high rise condos.

Source r150?

Here's an article

And here's one for our Canadian friends