Posted on 09/14/2018 6:47:41 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
A window on the 36th floor of the tilting high-rise cracked last week and engineers have yet to determine a cause
Millennium Tower must inspect all units and install a canopy around the perimeter of the 58-story building by Friday afternoon.
The downtown tower has settled about 18 inches (45 centimeters) since it opened over a former landfill in 2009. Homeowners have filed multiple lawsuits against the developer and the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Just about like your image of the elevator stuck 18 inches below the floor. Only the building and the (improperly designed/built ??) piles under it have sunk.
The building is twisting and titling slightly - this is most likely the cause of the windows getting jammed and stuck in their frames higher up. No significant earthquakes (yet!) near SFO since it was built, so any quake will only make things worse.
Sunkencity is pinged - jest because.
Just wait until the next earthquake.
Yeah the billy goat is actually at ground level as is lower Michigan and lower wacker dr. A lot of the older buildings actually have 3 basements. 2 which is are above ground level and one dug in the earth. I worked in the Harris bank building and the vaults were down in the 2nd and third basements.
Not as well known is the fact that the building was settling more rapidly than “calculated” early on in its construction. This was noted by the Hancock Tower's neighbors, as the the Copley Plaza Hotel and the Trinity Episcopal Church began developing cracks in their foundations. It was determined that, as the Hancock Tower settled, it was “pulling” the adjacent structures down with it.
John Hancock Co. solved the first problem by buying the Copley Hotel. However, even John Hancock did not have the resources to buy the Episcopal Church. The problems continued until a bright engineer determined that the ground beneath the structure could be stabilized by freezing it in place, and a substantial portion of the sub-basements were dedicated to housing the same type of machinery that freezes the ice at the former Boston Garden.
Voila! The fix worked and the ground beneath the structure is permanently (or at least as long as John Hancock pays the electrical power bills) frozen. I am assuming that the tower in SF does not have this option available.
We had a landfill about 1/2 mile from us and that is exactly what it is a golf course with beautiful homes built around it!!! I am STUNNED they would build a huge high rise on a landfill!!! I am more stunned that IDIOTS actually paid millions for their units knowing it was built on a landfill!!!
The residences are pricey; a penthouse unit sold for US$13 million in December 2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Tower_(San_Francisco)
I have never been inside one, but have read that all possible variations to accommodate the adjusted elevation can be found.
Joe Montana owns a condo there.
2.7 mil $$$
He is low on the list.
The residences are pricey; a penthouse unit sold for US$13 million in December 2016.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Tower_(San_Francisco)
if you drive the piles to bedrock, which if
Memory serves should be about 45 feet, there should be no problem...
IIRC this building uses ‘friction pilings’, NOT END BEARING.
Bad idea?
And do not forget that an adjacent building did some deep excavation very near the leaning tower.
You refresh my memory... it was friction pilings. It’s pretty much muck down to bredrock in that area, so I’d say they chose poorly though, obviously, this was an approved design
Some corrections: the Friction piles go down 60-90 feet through the bay
Mud to a compacted sand formation. Bedrock is at 200 feet. Sorry for the faulty recollection before
SF did a lot of land reclamation early in the 20th century, the Marina neighborhood is built over it, the follow-on to one of SF's world's fairs. Of course, the prospect of a large quake demolishing the city may mitigate their concern over building on landfill.
Thanks Robert A Cook PE. They should have built it with a Wonkavator instead. :^)
Seattle.
The fix worked and the ground beneath the structure is permanently frozen.
An interesting solution!
I would love to see how they placed the cooling coils in the surrounding earth without too much disturbance???
There were plans for a frost wall around the Fukushima Nuclear Accident ????
A fun read was the Plumbers union building their own hotel in Florida.
The plumbers were their own general contractor, could have worked? But did not.
The Diplomat Hotel engineering problems came very close to BANKRUPTING THE UNION.
Among the many problems, the building is situated on two large platforms. Early on an eagle-eyed worker notice a difference in height to the first completed platform and the forms for the second.
The decision was made to pour them at the same elevation.
A very bad idea. The actual plan was to allow for the settling of the platform.
To this day there is a seven-inch difference from one end of the building to the other.
Hanging doors must have been an experience.
Photo, looks level?
https://chmwarnick.com/portfolio/the-westin-diplomat-resort-spa/
This was well documented in an exciting engineering journal that I cannot find.
Foundation failing, building tipping, window cracked and they don’t know why? The will not estimate or speculate but they have a pretty good idea why this happened. Article not worth reading.
It would seem they need to demolish it while it is still relatively stable. Otherwise it will be difficult to get it to fall vertically?
Boston’s Back Bay is built on landfill.
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