Millennium Tower - $500 Million Wasted?

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I do a deep dive on the geotechnical aspects of this problematic, 58-story residential development in San Francisco, California that has experienced excessive foundation settlement and building tilt based upon a trove of project reports that I recently encountered.

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[pinverarity]

I’ve lived in SF for over 30 years, and everyone I know had the same reaction when word first came out: How was it even legal to build something that tall without drilling down to bedrock, *particularly* in that part of the city? Still boggles the mind.

[XY_Dude]

Well done presentation. I, a lowly homeowner, built a custom home on heaving soil. Requsted piles down to bedrock. They said piles to sand layer would work. After a few decades, our foundation has settled greatly. Had a foundation engineer come out. "Concrete pilings turn into heavy loads themselves eventually gruaranteed to get deeper." Had to put new pilings in 2x deeper to bedrock. How come this local engineer had this nailed and the the SF design team could not forsee this failure? Shocking. I'm sure a demo is in the future.

[simonwaldock]

My wife, who is a historian, told me about a cathedral in France in the 14th century. It was having foundation problems and external reinforcements were attempted. The cathedral fell down.

[susanfoley]

This entire debacle demonstrates yet again that the San Francisco building department is hopelessly incompetent, corrupt, or more likely both. I personally know of at least one case of bribery, and I don’t refer to small sums. This has been their reputation for over 100 years. This factor does make the practice of real estate law in the City a breathless adventure, but often highly risky. The whole tale as told here demonstrates almost complete engineering incompetence.

[LaughtersMelody]

With the plans for the other, nearly identical building being scrapped after independent review, and then the subsequent insistence that the Millennium Tower plans couldn't be independently reviewed because it would delay the project for "years, " it's hard not to wonder if someone in the firm was saying, "We can't afford to have another project scrapped. Make sure this one goes ahead."

[hiyahandsome]

Tear that sucker down and lock up all the grifters and fraudsters that contributed to the problem. Love your videos, the unvarnished scientific truth is refreshing.

[broederbond]

MILLINIUM TOWER OCCUPANTS: Pack your bags, Its over.

[Dan-ojiq]

As a non-engineer I would be thinking that this much settlement would do such extensive rupturing and damage to the interior of the building as to make it nonfunctional and even unlivable.

[christopherboehme]

This channel is a Master Class in geo-engineering and public-private interactions. I'm a civilian (not an engineer) but I never miss one of your posts. Your concise and informed presentation always leaves me feeling smarter. To my mind, this channel represents the original Dream for the internet. Good information widely disseminated.

[ferraridan]

Lawyers, lawyers and more lawyers. How about engineers, engineers and more engineers !

[thomasgirty]

I have always been lucky to work with and for people who believe the minimum is NOT enough. I have always tried to overbuild for strength in anything that I can, even if it costs a little more. it's nice to see work you did 25 or 30 years later look as good as the day I finished it.

[oldretireddude]

Assuming the $359 million dollar build number is correct, why not just tear it down instead of spending another $500 million on a risky foundation issue?

[kcgunesq]

In my experience, regulatory bodies, whether it is SEC or local building officials, are great at making sure boxes are checked and forms are filed. They will ream you several new ones if you don't tick a box, even when it clearly doesn't make sense to tick. But when it comes to actually having any expertise or the will to challenge any party that donates to their boss, they are ineffectual, at best.

[Bobrogers]

"We have done the calculations. We don't want anyone else to check our figures because it will delay the project. Trust us."

[pierrelabat]

Thank you for your detective work and analysis on this tower. Fascinating. I looked at condos for sale in that tower. For example a splendid large condo: 3 bd, 4 ba, 2, 170 sqft with superb view on the bay, bridge and town for less than $2M ($1995000). That is cheap for such a condo in SF.
However there is a catch: HOA fee $2959/month. Between that and the "special accessments" the tenants have to digest, that cools buyers down.
My totally unfounded crystal ball prediction is that this tower will be teared down. I think the costs to keep it alive will continue to add up without any assurance the problem will be fixed. At some point people (tenants, insurances, city) will realize it doesn't make economic sense to continue throwing money in the pit.

[johnjones]

1:28 Hamburger is wrong. However, his colleague Hot Dog is absolutely correct.

[radicalrick]

*I wonder if they actually planned to build this structure as an insurance write-off. Quite a few people are not above that type of dealing. My aunt got her permit/license to build a high-rise building. I told her it will never happen. She asked, 'Why not?' I told her it's because the mafia (unions, etc.) owns just about everything when it comes to building high-rises, and they will not let any outsider come in and take any of those jobs, regardless of your bidding for those projects.* *Sure enough, she could never get her foot in the door.*

[joshuarosen]

What's happened to the condo prices in the nearby buildings. The apartments in this building must be completely unsellable at any price, nobody is going to want to live in a building that could fall down when there is an earthquake. I wouldn't want to live in a neighboring building either, when the Millennium tower comes down its going to significantly damage its neighbors and its going to kill a lot of people on the street

[JoeKubinec]

Thank you for another awesome video that highlights very serious questions that remain unanswered. In addition to consequences for the city, developers, and associated engineers, the impact on the residents that own or have mortgages on their units will be profound - and nobody really addresses this in videos that are technical in nature. One of the side benefits that this type of video brings to the public is that we are being made aware of things to watch for, things to pay attention to in the media, things to pay attention to in scuttlebutt from others that can help people make informed decisions. For example, after the condo collapse in Florida we always look at the structure in parking garages and under bridges with a more critical eye. Are we qualified to make forma assessments? No - but it raises questions to us and allows us to make better risk assessments. I am reminded of the video make by a lady that was considering buying an apartment in the Florida condo... she was looking at, and video'd concrete damage in columns and the ceiling of the parking garage. She decided not to buy a unit there. Was she a qualified engineer? Definitely not based on reporting, but the damage raised questions in her mind and she proceeded cautiously - she made a risk assessment that may have saved her life. I am also reminded about the reports of shoddy construction in China - those poor people have invested their life's savings in buying condo's that looked great but are essentially garbage. We as regular people do not stand a chance without the efforts that you and others like you make to try and keep us safe and informed. So thank you yet again.

[spectrelayer]

The basic answer to all of these wonderful technical questions you point out is that: The contract bribery & back-door-deals had a schedule to meet & couldn't be interrupted by little things like the building falling over.