Millennium Tower: Expert Says Repair Work on SF High-Rise Should Stop
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- čas přidán 27. 10. 2021
- KPIX 5's Max Darrow spoke to a structural engineering consultant who believes it is time to put the brakes on the Millennium Tower repair project that was just restarted. (10-28-21)
I love that it's called Millennium Tower when it won't last a decade.
That was just a working title, may change it to debacle tower ,,, you know how California is .
Lmfao that hurt lol ha ha and I’m not even from here to honestly give a shit… they don’t know how to build right here
Funny. It’s over a decade old already.
@@californiamade5608 completed 2009, took less than 10 years for the foundation to break and start its falling motion. Foundation didn’t last a decade
There is no fucking way they did not know they were loosing the building as the decks were being built.
I agree with you all…take the building down! Hold those who issued the permits responsible and make it a LAW TO PIN FOUNDATIONS INTO THE BEDROCK!
LOL What an idiotic post
I cant believe a contractor would touch this fix at all.. if anything happens to make it worse they will get blamed..
Money talks…
I would think theres an ‘all care, no responsibility clause’
With that type of attitude no contractor would touch it; then for sure it would fall.
But they are required to be insured against any such calamity .
@@TruckTaxiMoveIt - as long as the expensive insurance policy is paid for by customer... it would sure increase the repair costs
This building needs to be evacuated and disassembled. One bad earthquake and it’s coming down. No one thought Champlain Towers was going to come down so suddenly, and then it happened
Was thinking the same thing. The city leaders need to act now and demolish the building, before mother nature demolish it herself risking many lives.
No one in charge cares about people. They’re just worried about investments. Good luck with them tearing down their investment
@@HeyUncleA - hope springs eternal. then one day the ground begins to shake and the best made plans of mice and men come tumbling down. it’s just too hard to fail so big. a politician or any business associated with declaring it a failure and taking it down would take far too much heat from the money interests who are basically wagering on beating the odds of a catastrophic failure. a 5.7 shaker like Loma Prieta some years ago might seal the fate of the tower (and lot of other borderline structures). i hate to say it, but we are somewhat overdue in the “big shake” category. but maybe it’ll be abother 25 years, who knows? that’s the wager….yikes!
In fairness, Champlain towers wasn't on anyones radar. I'd like to believe the many engineers, from various parties would be sounding the alarms if they thought there was a risk. Still, I wouldn't go in it.
and you said that based on your extensive structural and pyrotechnical expertise, right? Where did you study for your PhD?
Imagine paying millions for a condo just for it be worth 70% less now
I wont even buy a unit even if its 99% discount, you loose some wealth and you can earn it back but not with lives. That building is starting to become a coffin and the engineer says theyre not on the root of the problem yet. Owners should leave until further notice.
Best to accept a total loss and stay alive.
Now is the time to buy at 70% off.
That 70's% Show
not even sure why people spend millions on a condo....
When this building eventually collapses, other buildings will be in danger due to this being tilted already. It won’t be a straight down collapse onto itself, but a domino fall
I’d like to see simulation
15 Units for sale atm. Maybe they should sell before the building falls over??...
buy them cheap and flip them after the repairs, the assessments should already have been paid by seller
@@williamhaynes7089 There's no such thing as cheap in SF.
This building is a hazard.
@@williamhaynes7089 The repairs will NEVER properly conclude, it's part of the scam.
@@williamhaynes7089 ...no way you can repair that mess, once foundations have dished and cracked, it game over.
MAYBE if they tie off to the adjacent structure with a few straps from Home Depot , it'll be ALL good!
You have my vote, mayor!
Duct tape fixes all.
That's what I was thinking.
But use come-a longs cabled off......lol
Flex Seal and a few Sham Wows. That'll fix everything.
Zip ties
I look forward to the building being taken down.
They can take it down now or they can wait for a Champlain Tower moment when the next earthquake hits.
The Millennium Tower will eventually have to be taken down floor by floor. That is if no one will work out something to prevent more leaning and sinking. This is a concern for safety reasons.
The tower isn't going anywhere, it's just fine
Would the owners receive compensation if they do that?
OR....hey! maybe Al Qaeda will crash a plane into it and solve the whole problem. It even works for nearby buildings, like WTC 7, which never got touched by an airplane it just fell down by itself on 9/11.
@@mmaranta785 I don't have the foggiest idea, so to speak.
@@TruckTaxiMoveIt thank you... someone who knows what he is talking about. Actually it is not fine... but it's not going anywhere.
Climb to the top and dis assemble piece by piece, is the only logical solution.
Well, they could implode it. 🤷
That's what I was thinking
@@ursulasilva5838 The building is too close to other buildings and the debris would not fall into the footprint.
It should go the way of the Deutsche Bank at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan . Tear it down floor by floor. That one was 40 stories and there was another huge tower in midtown Manhattan that was/is being deconstructed to make way for another huge even talker tower. Even if the can stop it will the ever be able to straighten it out? The owners of the condos will never get their money back unless it can be as it’s supposed to be and then, because of the notoriety they still might not.
@@kansasthunderman1 The twin towers did
So why did the City of San Francisco, the City of San Francisco's ~EXPERT~ Peer Review team & the engineering firm performing the Seismic Safety Investigation in 2017, choose to leave out of the 2017 Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Report; that the south end of the tower foundation was cracking from the bottom up?
Money money money muuuunay… MUUUHNAY!!
This is what happens when you trust government. Go ahead and enjoy your vaccine!
@@johnrussell4954 mee-sah tried bleeech like orange man say. Mee-sah no trust sigh-ance jus like yoooo
@@scee7492 don't care if it's orange or Biden blue. Just like Tuskegee Airmen no want to play
The city is corrupt.
San Francisco is notorious for earthquakes.
Why they didn’t establish the piles on or into bed rock is beyond me
That's what they did with the salesforce tower across the street. They went to bedrock.
Because it was a scam.
according to a documentary i saw, after the 1906 earthquake, to ease rebuilding, they LOWERED earthquake standards, and those standards didn't get back to 1906 levels until the 1950s or 1960s
@@thejohnbeck "according to a documentary i saw." Aren't you glad engineers do not do their work according to a documentary? I don't even know what you are talking about... and neither do you.
@@thejohnbeck there were no city planning standards in 1906, and the richter scale wasn't invented yet.
Great reporting. The engineer interviewed pointed to not just one problem (pilings) but also foundation (slab) integrity. You can't fix one and ignore the other and solve the problem. The developers, home owners and bureaucrats are all all in CYA mode.
- If city bureaucrats approve the fix and it doesn't work more liability is transferred to the city. Superimpose quake risk on a flawed decision. What liability would the city incur "tear it down"? After all they approved the project.
- The developer has no option but to proceed to contain it's liability. They cannot recommend tearing it down.
- Homeowners if the city were to order the bldg come down would want to be compensated at today's full market value.
Bearing this in mind, repairing the bldg. is the only minimal liability temporary decision. It kicks the can down the road. In the end the repairs will proceed but the question is, will it be the best solution from a public and owner safety perspective. I hope I am proven wrong but it seems that the wrong decision will be taken for the wrong reasons.
Over $150 million has vanished in the "repair" already.
the weight of the entire building rests on that 10ft thick concrete pad and a number of pylons that just go down into the unstable soil and not to bedrock. That pad is under enormous load from a building that was redesigned to use much more concrete in it than using lighter weight steel. I like how those two workers are just chilling across the street in chairs. They're obviously there to watch for the building tilting more.
So they made house on sand then ? Everything in SF seems to be going to poop.
One time there was a report that they were drilling IN the basement. True? Being on a former landfill, seems as though vibrations from the drilling, the weight of the building, and Earth's vibrations would serve to squish even more to a foundation not part of bedrock. And so close to water's edge.
If this were a quake free zone i might have hope for it. But even a small quake would obviously increase the tilt to the point where condemning the building would be beyond debate.
If there is any building left at that point and not a massive grave site
They should rename this building Schadenfreude, it's what I feel every time I think of it. I have to admit that I want it to fail, BUT I have friends who work in the area so I hope for only a minor catastrophic failure that forces it to be closed down, the City should have never allowed this building to go up without a foundation in bedrock.
It's already renamed. Spoomfhraglestadosian Gack Gack Gack Towers
Construction on landfill is always a great idea.
Love Canal would agree with you.
Sarcasm is in play here and correct.
It’s particularly recommended for super-talls!
I would not work in this project if I were a laborer as the building may collapse during this repair work.
At this point tear it down, if I was a resident I wouldn’t be able to live there let alone sleep there. Fix or no fix.
OMG just bring that building down.
Smartest idea so far! Better late than never!
kind of a poetic metaphor for the state of the nation. Foundation is crumbling but the more they try to remedy it, the worse it gets.
And leaning to the left.
@@carlosmendoza8312 and refusing to accept personal responsibility by playing the blame game.
@@elijahasefa389 Let's Go Brandon!
@@elijahasefa389 Let's Go Brandon!
@@scottn7cy Cry more.
Well that’s some scary shit.
That area is actually 80 years over due for a earthquake. I wonder if the tenants know this😳
Had a big one there 32 years ago.
Look up Loma Prieta.
Will the soil liquify in an earthquake?
Hopefully this will be ready by 3000 when I plan on moving in.
Yeah by then you can pitch your tent up there
Man if that building collapses its surely taking others with it.
It is the Foundation itself not the Structure that is at fault !
@Control-Alt-Delete What's a god?
There was a report the other day that it would have only cost $4 million to make the foundation reach bedrock. The building cost something like $390 million to build. There was a similar tall concrete (heavier) building near this that refused to go to bedrock BEFORE this one and the city canceled it. Then they let this one go through?? Supposed to have been no geo-technical engineer (foundations) on either the design team or city peer review team for Millenium Tower. Berkeley Professor Jack Moehle was an earthquake preparedness expert on the design team and lead the city peer review team (against city rules of being on both). He said under questioning by a city councilman: "When I said it met code and should be approved, I wasn't saying it was going to work."
I saw that video also. 4 million more on a 350 million dollar build. Seems like a good idea.
When this building collapses, it will make the Surfside condo collapse look like a fender bender.
These law makers are delusional or lives inside their heads. Tiiiimbeeeeer!
well you have a incompetent mayor and DA, that should says it all.
@@donlee.4308 Who elected them, Who deserves them.
So you're a risk taker ! Putting a Band-Aid on a catastrophe ! This must make the surrounding buildings very nervous !
Keep these updates comeing its absolutely fascinating
Sounds like they’re really ‘DISHING’ it out to all those multi-millionaires.
Hope King Kong doesn't get stuck on this clapboard monstrosity!
What a waste of money... Tear it down.
When foundation is not built right, it takes 100 times more costs to fix it and it may not even be fixed properly.
When I visit SF I just want to know what is the lean direction so I can stay upwind of this building.
It looks like visually from the sky that it's leaning one way.
The whole building must not be worth much forever at this point. Building another tower there but better probably is a long term, money saving solution.
02:13 me sitting with my beer and waiting
The city needs to condemn the building, take the building under eminent domain, compensate current tenant owners, and then sue the original developers, engineers, and their insurance to recover as much as possible. Not an engineer, but seems there are enough red flags here that it is a huge public safety issue. Imagine how much it will cost all of them if the building collapses into other buildings killing thousands.
The city let them do it...
They don't want to here the real pain ! the pain of bringing it down piece by piece at a cost of 2 billion plus dollars !
Talk about real estate values going up and down; all around the United States real estate values are skyrocketing but here this single skyscraper is going down -- literally and financially
I watched a show many years ago about newly instituted high rise construction guidelines in San Francisco. It was a great show. It told of how new buildings there where required to be constructed on a concave base of giant ball bearings to save them from earthquakes. Was that mandate scratched? I hear nothing about that with this building.
Just like I’m Florida the same will happen to this building.. One earthquake that building is coming down I hope residents move and relocate elsewhere!
Can just rename it SF TRUMP TOWER! Making America Great Again, Trumplican-Style!
You guys planning on making that building collapse all by itself..like the one in Florida?
They're trying to polish a turd here. The whole thing probably needs to be taken down.
The property value of the place it's leaning towards is probably really cheap right now
What a nightmare for the owners
THEY SHOULD SLOWLY DIG OUT THE BOTTOM CAUSING THE TOWER TO SINK 10-20 FLOORS DOWN TO THE BEDROCK - - THEREBY CONVERTING THOSE LOWEST 10-20 FLOORS INTO A 10-20 STORY BASEMENT - - THEN REINFORCE THE NEW BASEMENT AND STILL HAVE A FUNCTIONING BUILDING (ALBEIT 10-20 FLOORS SHORTER IN THE SKYLINE).
I still can’t get over people are living in this building!🥺
I wonder if they could inject liquid nitrogen beneath the foundation and freeze the mud down there, halting its compression by the weight of the building and giving them more time to place the supports around the edge of the foundation and also suppress the dipping they've now observed in the floor of the garage.
I think they just have to admit the building is just too heavy. Even with bedrock support pillars - the weight of it will always put pressure on that mud and "squish" it and compact it. That will never be stable for the ground-floor slabs. They'll crack, then snap, then let water intrude. Then spall, then boom.
Lol.....freezing the mud causes expansion, which would worsen the foundation cracking....
@@richardwebb9532 Uh, you do realize the cracking is being caused by the foundation sinking because the mud is being compressed, right? And that expansion is exactly what you'd want to reverse that (and also stop the compression).
@@sunspot42 nope, as a builder of 40+ years with my own successful business, freezing that mud, pressed up against the cracked foundations, will cause it to expand towards the easiest route, which would be the weakened foundation full of cracks, and you'd freeze and expand any water in those cracks too, making it worse.
(Basic science and engineering)
@@richardwebb9532 This isn't a house. The foundation - an enormous slab - isn't cracked. The problem is that the building - including its heavy foundation - is sinking into the mud, and the sidewalks around it are buckling and cracking as a result. And you wouldn't freeze the foundation - you'd freeze the mud well beneath the foundation.
This building should never have been built without bedrock foundations. The only reason it was not is about money.
I don't believe it can ever be properly fixed. Sooner or later it will be a danger to everyone in and around it.
Spending 100s of millions trying to prop it up is a waste of money. It should be demolished.
LOL
1 thing I have not heard yet is who is paying for all the repairs? Are the HOA members going to get stuck with the bill ? What if they have to move who is going to pay for their move and the costs they have incurred to date such a rental or purchase price?
I'd be sleeping with one eye open and a parachute..just saying.
@Big Happy Is have a gun I can use to break out the window, and a parachute by the bed
won't work. Your cat won't wake you up.
This is going to be the next Champlain Towers collapse but in Cali. 🤦♂️
What astonishes me is condos are still being sold in the building.
after florida...time to get out of this building ASAP.
Does anyone living down there know which bldg is next to the leaning Millennium Tower? If the bldg falls like a tree it will wipe out the bldg next to it. Which bldg is that?
The Washington Monument.
@@NeverTalkToCops1 : )
181 Freemont and Salesforce Tower. They're the two newest ones.
@@sasailic3006 Thank-you. : )
I wonder if anyone is actually buying the apartments listed on Zillow
I just got one! Heavy discount from the former owner, a smarmy former NFL player. I place a marble on the floor and it magically hauls ass!
@@NeverTalkToCops1 good luck to you.
I am registered as an architect in California. I left the state last year, after 41 years of practice there. California has become a refuge for carpet baggers, liars and cheats. Ethics and integrity no longer exist there. Greed supersedes all else. A third world mentality has taken over in municipal building departments. It is easy to figure out why when you look at their nepotistic EEO hiring practices. The State is more concerned about disabled access to buildings than structural integrity. That is why California's continuing education program for architects is limited to disabled access and has been for years. I pray that the Millennium Tower never falls, but I wouldn't bet against it.
But shouldn’t the architect and engineer have known better than to put their seal on the drawings or even propose a foundation that doesn’t reach the bedrock?
Sure the city has a final say in giving out the permit, the engineer and architect submitted the drawings in the first place.
Just call it a loss and demolish the damn thing.
It's so insane they can't admit this should be a total tare down.
2:12 Aaron says there is no immediate threat, then turns around and wants to know what the point of no return is. If you don't know the answer to the question then how can you claim no immediate threat? Moving back into the wet season. December through February I wouldn't be anywhere near it. What the hell is a board of supervisors anyway?
Trial and error engineering, San Francisco style!
Must have been been built Recyclable!
2:05 cool ornament
Don't worry folks, there's still time to get into a condo here! A small unit is available today for $1.2M.
Water on the parking. That is what brought down the Florida condo.
David Williams is the best! He’s a family friend of ours
Still unresolved. Unbelievable!
I was in the 1989 S.F. area Loma Prieto quake. The Bay Bridge snapped, and someone was buried by a crumbling brick building South of Market. This building is only 1/2 mile or so from the aforementioned areas of disaster. Someone should at least earthquake-proof what they can while they tinker with the leaning tower.
No life safety concern? Wtf 😳? I wouldn’t live in the leaning tower of SF if you paid me! They need to start dismantling it from the top down before it falls down entirely!!
Is the lean noticeable inside the units?
Do you have a ball bearing? I believe that is how problem originally found.
Yes, just place a marble on the floor and it will move, QUICKLY across.
There is no structural failure on the building but it’s only leaning 16 inches what the hell is that about
This city sits on the water anyway. “deep foundation and water intrusion”. Evacuate!
That part of the city, yes. Much of that area is landfill.
It's called the millennium tower cause that how long they'll be working in it
Wonder if it will still be here in my next incarnation.
Condemn the building and get everyone out of there. Demolish the building!
take it apart from the top down while they still have time!
1. Why NOT use end bearing ( in bedrock) caissons in the beginning (fear of direct transfer of seismic vibration)? Since using the friction caissons with mat foundation, why not expand the mat where settles to alleviate soil pressure. even need to expand into others properties. 2. The drilling of new deeper caissons might drag (by friction force) the nearby soil downwards, consequently drag the building down at the construction corner. 3. The direct bearing on bedrock will change the characteristics of the original seismic design/transfer. Hit by both surface wave and body wave. Needs to be re-designed/re-considered. Might not be significant. High rise building mostly governed by wind force than by seismic force.
I don't think the building is in imminent danger. The settle will stop after the completion of construction. 4. How to tilt it back to level?
how can you fix something so large and complex that's sooo broken because it seems like when they "fix" it it just get progressively worse. im just a little baffled that they haven't decided to dismantle the entire building level by level.... yes it would be expensive and idk how it could be done from a finical standpoint on the homeowner side but imagine if it actually collapsed into Salesforce or one of the other neighboring buildings.... they did it in to a new hotel in Vegas 10 years ago and yes it cost just as much to dismantle as to build but were talking about public safety and the safety of another properties, better safe then sorry!
Hope no earthquake hits anytime soon
They didn't do enough core samples before construction
You gotta love that not one company name or person’s name is reported by the news as having developed it or signed off on it. I guess they have enough money to stay out of the news.
PLUS the Contractor on the Bay Bridge used defective Bolts. And the City and state just sweep it all under the rug. Sad. Follow the MONEY.
Thing is - even after all of these repairs, who's gonna want to rent there? I know I'd never ever feel secure in that building, I wouldn't put my home or my business there no matter how cheap rents were to try and entice me in.
From the start I knew this building was a fools errand, when I read they were not going down to bedrock I knew this would happen. The only sane fix at this point is to comdem it and tear it down before Mother Nature does it for you, one way or another it will come down.
I’ll make you a great deal on a penthouse with a lovely view of the 2nd floor!
What’s the point of even trying to save the building? It’s 11 years old now. Just tear it down and start over again. I don’t get how they can fix it. That’s just stupid.
$150 million so far in "repairs". That's why.
Owners and residents of all adjacent buildings (for a distance equal to at least the height of this building) should group together to instigate a class action lawsuit that will force a careful dismantling of this imminent catastrophe. There is no question as to ‘if’ but ‘when’ this worst case scenario will occur… Are the residents of this monument to EGO and the construction workers risking their own lives attempting to apply band aids to an ever worsening problem, getting any form of danger pay?
It gives it character
The news don’t sleep!
I'd sure be nervous living in that thing.
Place marble on floor, watch it pick up speed, a LOT of speed as it hauls over the tilted floor.
Tear it down !
I said this long ago as one of the highest paid contractors on the east coast, this building HAS TO BE demolished down to the foundation and built again from the ground up, there is literally no other way to protect the people in or around the building. Before long electrical lines will stat ripping apart from the lean and cause a fire, cables are secured and as the lean tugs on them it will literally destroy that tower and everyone in it one day if it isn't demolished.
The current amount of lean is not affecting the elevators, but if the leaning continues, the guide rails will become out of plumb to the point where the elevators will no longer function. Without elevator service, a 50 story building is useless.
Soon, the elevators won't work.
I wish you dedicated this airtime to the conditions of housing projects
skyscrapers are a huge waste of energy and space. we don't need to build any more of them. They waste so much energy by trying to keep them cool and we can't even keep most skyscrapers full. We are better off with wider, longer buildings up to 20 or 30 stories.
Right. There hundreds if not thousands of towns that are withering away from lack of jobs and full of space for housing. But since these companies don't have to pay they keep shoving all the work in crowded expensive cities
I wouldn’t live there even if I was given a penthouse for free, nor would I spend the night if offered $1 million
right i get super alert when i drive pass....like i will hop out and run.
Any high rise in SF 7.0 earthquake and you’re going for a ride
@@MikeJones-oe3do doubt it. we talking about ONE building. not all.
Better hope San Fransisco doesn't have a major earthquake.
Cobe airport - lets get some car jacks and keep adding steel plates
Omg. Figure something out so we don’t have to keep hearing this.
The Leaning Tower of America