San Francisco luxury tower still sinking even as engineers work on $100m fix

[turbinetree]

San Francisco’s notorious sinking luxury high-rise is still sinking, even amid a $100m project designed to fix the issue.

Work to reinforce the foundation of Millennium tower in the city’s downtown came to a halt this week, after engineers found the building had sunk an inch in the months since work began. Engineers were working on reinforcing the foundation of the tower to prevent additional tilting and sinking.

The 58-story tower, the tallest residential building in San Francisco, has drawn joking comparisons to the Leaning Tower of Pisa because, by 2014, it had sunk 18in and was leaning 14in to the west. The high-rise opened to fanfare five years earlier, with all 419 units quickly selling out and had high-profile residents such as the former San Francisco 49ers player Joe Montana, and the Giants outfielder Hunter Pence.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/26/san-francisco-millennium-tower-sinking

[PoliticAverse]

1. Additional DU discussion on the issue...

Here: https://democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=15781896

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. Gotcha covered, Chief.

[roamer65]

3. Don't live in it or anywhere near it, IMO.

SF has a large quake and the liquefaction of that sand it’s built on will bring it down.

If the San Andreas lets go like 1906, that sucker is toast.

[alwaysinasnit]

5. Unfortunately, it isn't just the San Andreas fault line that could cause misery.

https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/map-known-active-geologic-faults-san-francisco-bay-region

[roamer65]

6. Yup. Hayward fault is another one I know of.

[alwaysinasnit]

7. I was born and raised in SF and earthquakes are a part of the risks of this area. But the biggest

problem here is that nearly half of the bay area is landfill, making many sections of San Francisco very vulnerable.

https://priceonomics.com/what-parts-of-san-francisco-are-built-on-land-fill/

[roamer65]

8. Yup...liquefaction.

The one I truly worry about is the Cascadia subduction zone off from the coast of Oregon, Washington state and BC.

When that fault unzips they will see a quake 9.0 or greater, along with a nasty tsunami.

Most of the structures in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland are not even built to withstand a San Andreas quake, let alone a CSZ quake.

https://pnsn.org/outreach/earthquakesources/csz

[alwaysinasnit]

9. Yup, I am in total agreement. It will be horrific.

Stay safe (and sane)!

[roamer65]

10. I live in Michigan.

I once wanted to live in Washington State, but the knowledge that a quake like that could happen there dissuaded me from moving.

[alwaysinasnit]

11. Washinton is truly beautiful country, but I imagine Michigan is beautiful too. I guess that you

too have your own weather or geological dangers to contend with. We can only do what we can to mitigate the risks and get through life.

[roamer65]

13. Yup. I don't like the ground underneath me moving much.

About ten years back there was a small quake in Quebec. I was in an office building in Detroit and I immediately felt it and said that was an earthquake.

Everyone around me said ur nuts until we looked it up and there it was on USGS.gov.

They then called me the human seismograph.

[alwaysinasnit]

16. Mother Nature's version of a roller coaster ride. I remember working in downtown SF and experienced

an earthquake. My office chair had wheels and it was on a plexiglass base. I had to grab on to the edge of the desk because the chair kept sliding around. Talk about stomach-churning. I can smile about it now, but it sure wasn't funny then.

[Sympthsical]

14. We live above a fault

One we did not know about when we bought the place, but ah well. Almost literally above it. I can walk down the street and look at the creep and pulverized rock formations it causes.

It's apparently capable of up to a 7.1, but it isn't supposed to be as active as the San Andreas or Hayward. The last mess it made was in 1400 or so. Fingers crossed!

[alwaysinasnit]

15. I truly feel for you. And given the current situation, it would take a lot of resources and effort

to relocate. I moved from SF and am now in Sonoma County so I get to view things from a distance but I still have plenty of family in, or very near, SF.

[Sympthsical]

17. We're in Solano County

So hallo, neighbor-ish!

I lived in East Bay for quite a while very close to the Hayward. Had a 4.1 epicenter less than half a mile away a few years back. Thought a garbage truck hit the building.

I figured, "North Bay! Let's put some distance between us and the nonsense."

Newp, lol.

[alwaysinasnit]

19. Greetings Neighbor! Most of my family is in San Mateo county but I do have a brother in Vallejo. We

have lived in the Bay Area since our parents moved here in the 1950's.

[Initech]

4. I seriously wonder why this doesn't happen more often.

We have government regulations for a reason. Keep skirting around those and see how far that gets you.

[LiberalFighter]

12. What were they thinking? Besides money.

[Sympthsical]

18. Hey now, ill-advised buildings are kind of our thing here

If anyone has the time, this article about Salesforce Tower will make your afternoon. It's a great, hilarious read.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/editorspicks/article/salesforce-tower-tech-leaving-san-francisco-16053690.php#

My favorite bit

"An Instagram account, JustTheTipSF, highlights this phenomenon and has received more than 1,000 photo submissions of distant views that were once sky, and now are speared by glass. (Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff once tweeted a link to the website before deleting it, maybe realizing that the site wasn’t celebrating his tower but mocking its omnipresent phallic appearance.)

Despite all the jokes, I don’t see the Salesforce Tower as a dick exactly, more an ill-fitting appendage, a strap-on pegging the beautiful California sky."