5 ms·

I've never heard of anything like this. What happens now? Do they have to demolish the entire building and start from scratch?

by warent 8y ago

cronix 8y ago
> I've never heard of anything like this. This is kind of small compared to the Millennium Tower in San Francisco. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/millennium-tower-san-francisco-leaning-tower-of-lawsuits-60-minutes/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/millennium-tower-san-francisco-...
- warent 8y ago
  I lived right near that thing and knew it was sinking a bit, but had no idea it was leaning so far and with cracks too. WOW! That's terrifying, and I'm more relieved than ever to be away from that thing. Do you think anyone is going to do anything about this before a catastrophe?
  - cronix 8y ago
    I don't track it, but last I heard there was a proposal that would cost ~$100M to drive micropilons down to bedrock, which is what should have been mandated in the main design to begin with. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Millennium-Tower-homeowners-propose-100-million-13440479.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Millennium-Tower... Some windows are starting to crack as well. https://sf.curbed.com/2018/9/7/17829328/millennium-tower-window-crack-highrise https://sf.curbed.com/2018/9/7/17829328/millennium-tower-win...
    - HillaryBriss 8y ago
      I recall early stories about Millennium Tower and the builder basically claiming, through a law firm, that it was a normal amount of settling and everything was fine. Nothing to see here.... And I bet the same sort of response will come from the builder of Opal Tower in Sydney.
      - twblalock 8y ago
        That's always how it starts, and it always ends with the developer, architect, builder, residents, and local government suing each other for years on end.
      - samstave 8y ago
        Here is my personal opinion on the reason why it was thought to be a reasonable amount of settling: that they were looking at simply the individual millenium towers' effect on the overall area -- but with the addition of the transbay terminal next door - the major excavation which occured with that - then the new load of the salesforce tower and the transbay terminal (which also had been closed due to cracking and settling issues and needs to be jacked up -- I think that whole lot of struct/civ engineers are at fault of being short-sighted about the surrounding load impact on the greater financial district and the standards which were previously thought to be adequate. So - you have the millenium tower, which was completed prior to any of these ancillary loads were put on the area - but is effectively being squeezed out and squished, and even the most micro-shifts in the foundations of Millenium Tower will be amplified by its mass+height -- but as it was already into a settled-ish position, its now getting worse after its' settling is further distressed due to even a millimeter shift in the lateral load due to compression from and settling of the new towers/terminal....
      - TheGrassyKnoll 8y ago
        Millennium Tower will be a multi-decade lawyer-fest. At least four or five parties will be suing each other: The designers, the builders, the city, the apartment owners, insurance companies and probably the neighboring building owners. What a mess.
    - sagarm 8y ago
      The window crack discovered in September is believed to be caused by an external impact: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Something-hit-Millennium-Tower-and-cracked-window-13276821.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Something-hit-Mi... There was another one discovered in late October, but I haven't seen any updates on that one.
gwright 8y ago
You can read about a similar situation in the Citigroup building in NYC from the late 70's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center
joemag 8y ago
This happened in Seattle [1], where 25 floor luxury apartment building had to be demolished. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuire_Apartments https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuire_Apartments

I've never heard of anything like this. What happens now? Do they have to demolish the entire building and start from scratch?

by warent 8y ago

I've never heard of anything like this. What happens now? Do they have to demolish the entire building and start from scratch?

cronix 8y ago

> I've never heard of anything like this. This is kind of small compared to the Millennium Tower in San Francisco. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/millennium-tower-san-francisco-leaning-tower-of-lawsuits-60-minutes/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/millennium-tower-san-francisco-...

warent 8y ago
I lived right near that thing and knew it was sinking a bit, but had no idea it was leaning so far and with cracks too. WOW! That's terrifying, and I'm more relieved than ever to be away from that thing. Do you think anyone is going to do anything about this before a catastrophe?
- cronix 8y ago
  I don't track it, but last I heard there was a proposal that would cost ~$100M to drive micropilons down to bedrock, which is what should have been mandated in the main design to begin with. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Millennium-Tower-homeowners-propose-100-million-13440479.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Millennium-Tower... Some windows are starting to crack as well. https://sf.curbed.com/2018/9/7/17829328/millennium-tower-window-crack-highrise https://sf.curbed.com/2018/9/7/17829328/millennium-tower-win...
  - HillaryBriss 8y ago
    I recall early stories about Millennium Tower and the builder basically claiming, through a law firm, that it was a normal amount of settling and everything was fine. Nothing to see here.... And I bet the same sort of response will come from the builder of Opal Tower in Sydney.
    - twblalock 8y ago
      That's always how it starts, and it always ends with the developer, architect, builder, residents, and local government suing each other for years on end.
    - samstave 8y ago
      Here is my personal opinion on the reason why it was thought to be a reasonable amount of settling: that they were looking at simply the individual millenium towers' effect on the overall area -- but with the addition of the transbay terminal next door - the major excavation which occured with that - then the new load of the salesforce tower and the transbay terminal (which also had been closed due to cracking and settling issues and needs to be jacked up -- I think that whole lot of struct/civ engineers are at fault of being short-sighted about the surrounding load impact on the greater financial district and the standards which were previously thought to be adequate. So - you have the millenium tower, which was completed prior to any of these ancillary loads were put on the area - but is effectively being squeezed out and squished, and even the most micro-shifts in the foundations of Millenium Tower will be amplified by its mass+height -- but as it was already into a settled-ish position, its now getting worse after its' settling is further distressed due to even a millimeter shift in the lateral load due to compression from and settling of the new towers/terminal....
    - TheGrassyKnoll 8y ago
      Millennium Tower will be a multi-decade lawyer-fest. At least four or five parties will be suing each other: The designers, the builders, the city, the apartment owners, insurance companies and probably the neighboring building owners. What a mess.
  - sagarm 8y ago
    The window crack discovered in September is believed to be caused by an external impact: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Something-hit-Millennium-Tower-and-cracked-window-13276821.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Something-hit-Mi... There was another one discovered in late October, but I haven't seen any updates on that one.

gwright 8y ago

You can read about a similar situation in the Citigroup building in NYC from the late 70's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center

joemag 8y ago

This happened in Seattle [1], where 25 floor luxury apartment building had to be demolished. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuire_Apartments https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuire_Apartments