The complex operation of anchoring the two skyscrapers to the ground and consolidating them (the taller one reaches a height of 197 metres, or 646 feet) obscures the beauty and features of one of the most modern and luxurious residential complexes in America.Ī project approved in 2003 by the San Francisco Planning Commission followed by six years of construction until its grand opening on April 23, 2009. However, in a letter sent to residents of the buildings, expert Ronald Hamburger explained that the very removal of the soil for the laying of the piles is causing new “ground vibrations” and promoting further tilting of the tower. This would be the only way to zero in on the buildings’ fluctuations, which have continued in recent weeks. The plan calls for 52 steel-clad concrete columns to be installed at foundation level reaching 76 metres (250 feet) deep, where the clay soil gives way to rocks. The construction site is now open and work is expected to be completed at the end of 2022. A project to stabilise the Millennium Tower was announced in October 2020, at a cost of $100 million. In 2017, an investigation conducted by the San Francisco administration confirmed that the building was safe to inhabit, although damage to the foundation and electrical system was found. Some of them had paid over $5 million for the apartments and now found themselves with considerable losses on their hands in light of the building’s structural damage. The residents were notified of the problem in 2016, and first lawsuits erupted. Cracks in the walls, raised sidewalks, and damage in the basement of the second building, which is 12 stories lower than the basement in the main tower. It only took a few years for the effects of the complex’s settlement to be seen with the naked eye. By the end of last year, the Main Tower had sunk 40 centimetres (15 inches). The two buildings were designed by Handel Architects and built by Millennium Partners, and the larger houses 419 luxury apartments. “We start this new year 2022 as we ended last year and many other years, with the Millennium Tower continuing to sink and tilt,” city supervisor Aaron Peskin said at last week’s hearing, according to NBC.Īn unhappy fate for what was supposed to be the flagship of San Francisco’s financial district when it was opened in 2009. In 2021 the building tilted 7 centimetres (2.7 inches) in both the north and west directions. San Francisco’s tallest and most expensive residential tower is sinking – and bending - just like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and at a fairly alarming rate. ![]() The reports have been circulating for over a year now, and they have finally been confirmed by City Supervisor Aaaron Peskin and the head of the stabilisation project, Ronald Hamburger. As a result, the tower is now leaning about a half-inch more to the west than before it was first supported along Mission.The Millennium Tower is sinking. One reflects rooftop measurements, the other, foundation-based determinations.īack 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.īut in recent weeks, the rooftop data is reflecting the loss of the improvement and a trend of worsening tilt. The engineers have relied on two types of measurement to determine lean. 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. "You spend all this money, but you still have an uncertain result long term." "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.
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