Posted on 10/29/2021 8:57:44 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
The building is now tilting 25 inches to the northwest, towards the heavily-traveled corner of Mission and Fremont streets. In an exclusive interview, we spoke to one former condo owner who says he’s glad he got out.
“What they said was, this was not a big problem,” said Faulk.
Later, Faulk’s husband Frank Jernigan rolled a marble on the floor of their $4 million, 50th-floor condo that confirmed for them that the problem was all too real.
“The marble turns around and picks up speed as it heads in the direction that the building was leaning. We were surprised, and we were a little shocked,”
“The dishing of the floor there, which is the dishing of the ten-foot-thick mat, was significant,” said Williams. “Clearly, it had been distressed.”
“The city must demand that there is a well-thought-out plan for retreat and dismantling of that building should we ever, god forbid, get there. I mean, putting that building up was complicated enough, taking it down is profoundly more complicated,”
(Excerpt) Read more at sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com ...
This goes all the way back to the original soil borings.
The developer probably did the minimum necessary (if that) to save a little money—penny wise and pound foolish.
—”I thought the Hitchcockian angles, and vertigo were part of the charm.”
As a child, my parents took me to a “tilted” house attraction near the Wisconson Dells.
With the right promotion, they could add a few dollars to their income.
Probably topple over and cause a sidewalk poo tsunami.
A leftward tilt?
—”skyscraper without a structural review is beyond belief.”
And I for one think it is a BS charge.
In the early design phase, before any geotechnical reports, simply a concept and always low budget. And nothing more.
A genius attorney spinning BS.
—”Who would buy the unit from them, unless speculating on a large lawsuit victor”
Clearly spec buyers, and they are also are art collectors!
A genius attorney spinning BS.
—
Could be.
The only reality is the building has settled to the point where it is 2-feet out of plumb, which is huge.
Every building is designed to settle and every skyscraper is designed to sway, to a degree, in the wind, but being 2 feet out of plumb has to be introducing a lot of unexpected stress on the building’s frame. What happens with a strong earthquake?
—”a level would work better.”
Most cheap levels are junk and it is easy to prove.
Set the likely level surface, mark the bubble location within the vial, rotate horizontally 180 degrees.
The same location should read the same.
Who signed off on this ? Shifting foundation, lean and in a earthquake zone. Tear it down , asap, before it falls down.
Bribing city inspectors is a trivial exercise.
All major urban developers routinely “go along to get along”....
In many cases the mayors/city council get a piece of the action.
Clearly, this is a major problem.
But the difference in the drawings is only conflated by the attorneys, probably nothing more.
Millennium Partners first proposed the development in 2002 with 163 condominiums, 108 rentals and a 136-unit "extended stay" hotel. The project was approved in 2003 by the S.F. Planning Commission 4–1 and construction began in 2005. The only vote against the project came from Planning Commissioner Sue Lee. The development was the first high rise built downtown in 20 years. According to Modern Luxury, a proposed 52-story skyscraper at nearby 80 Natoma by developer Jack Myers which would also have a similar cast in place concrete construction, was rejected by the city's Department of Building Inspections (DBI) after an outside peer review. The Millennium Tower received no such scrutiny, since Millennium Partners would not submit to a peer review, as that study would have potentially delayed construction by years. Treadwell & Rollo, the geotechnical engineer for Millennium Tower, were also the geotechnical engineer for the scrapped project at 80 Natoma.
On September 6, 2010, Dan Goodwin, also known as SpiderDan and Skyscraperman, scaled the outside of the tower using suction cups. Following the climb, Goodwin was arrested by the San Francisco police, who charged him with trespassing and creating a public nuisance.
In 2013, the building sold its final unit, generating US$750 million in total sales, a 25 percent return on the estimated US$600 million in development costs.
I figure about 180mph the last 10 feet.
Just hang a sign on the front and charge admission, The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Someone should check to see if Alec Baldwin has a stake in the construction co.
Go figure......
Most of the state of CA is moving to the northwest, towards the Pacific Ocean, north of Frisco.
i think much of SF is built on marshes filled in as landfills ... those areas essentially temporarily liquefy when vibrated by earthquakes ...
So, then: Looking North, a San Francisco building is just being normal?
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