He recalled that back in January, fix engineers were quick to hail the Mission Street operation a successful based on similar early data. That’s backed up by newly released rooftop monitoring data, showing that the newly supported tower is leaning about a quarter inch less at the northwest corner that it was just days before.īut David Williams, an expert in deep foundations, says its simply too soon to make any pronouncements of success. Millennium fix officials indicated in a statement that the building is now starting to recover some of its tilt.
MILLENNIUM TOWER TILTS QUARTER FOUR DAYS WINDOWS
“Even if this amount of tilting was exceeded, the building would still be safer than most existing buildings in San Francisco, but not as safe as intended by the current building code,” he added.Mission Street Closed After Windows Fail at Salesforce Building, Millennium Tower in High Winds “I have performed analyses that indicate the building can withstand at least 70 inches of tilt to the west and 30 inches to the north before its ability to resist earthquakes would be compromised. “Since we anticipate that the rate of tilting will continue to decrease with time, and will eventually stop, we do not anticipate the building would ever tilt enough to become unsafe,” he said. Hamburger said the building is safe for residents and will remain so. In December, a one-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment sold for $1.16 million, while a one-bedroom, one-bathroom sold for $765,000, according to Zillow. Designed by Handel Architects and developed by Millennium Partners, the tower’s properties will continue to sell as engineers work on the fix. But an occupied modern skyscraper leaning because of unstable ground in one of the most expensive US cities is a costly and contentious dilemma.Īt 645 feet high, the Millennium Tower is the fourth tallest building in San Francisco. Structures famous for their tilts in Pisa, Italy, and Nevyansk, Russia, have become tourist attractions, while London’s Elizabeth Tower (the clock tower containing the famous Big Ben bell) has a slight but increasing lean. Leaning towers are not unheard of when it comes to older architecture. “Because the stabilization is still under construction, it has not yet worked to help the building.” “The retrofit is not going to ‘stop the sinking’ until the piles are driven into bedrock and attached to the foundation,” he added. “This will reduce the excessive pressure on the Old Bay Clay materials that caused the original settlement, stop the settlement and allow the building to begin recovering some of the tilt that has occurred. “Once these piles are installed… using hydraulic jacks, some of the building’s weight will be transferred to these new piles,” Hamburger explained. Gabrielle Lurie/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images Experts have blamed nearby construction projects and a process known as “dewatering” for weakening the soil beneath the tower, according to earlier CNN reporting.Ĭonstruction to stabilize the two buildings includes new piles, anchored to bedrock deep below the ground, that will eventually bear the weight. Though engineers are now working to stabilize the skyscraper, a city hearing last week revealed that the tilting will continue for several more months. It has settled around 18 inches deep into the ground. By the end of last year, the tower had leaned a total of 24 inches to the west and 7.9 inches to the north. The tenants were first notified of the issue in 2016. The tallest residential structure in the city, the tower’s uneven settling has caused cracks in the surrounding sidewalk and the basement walls of its smaller, 12-story sister building next door. Opened in 2009, the estimated $350-million project comprises two buildings, the larger of which is home to 419 luxury apartments, including a lavish $13-million, 5,500-square-foot penthouse. San Francisco’s swanky Millennium Tower has been slowly sinking for years – and, as a result, the 58-story skyscraper tilted at a rate of up to 3 inches to the north and west last year, according to the engineer tasked with fixing it.
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