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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

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.

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.