What Really Happened at the Millennium Tower?
Practical Engineering2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2022–2023
explainer · general · 2022–2023 on HN
Practical Engineering explains why San Francisco's Millennium Tower is sinking and tilting, covering how geology and foundation design (friction piles in the Colma Formation) affect skyscrapers. It also covers the fix being attempted.
HN commenters point to it as the well-made, detailed explanation of the Millennium Tower debacle whenever the tower comes up.
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3 comments from Hacker News
Here is someone who goes into detail about the Millennium Tower debacle: ▶ this video In short, shortcuts, or more charitably, miscalculations. They really thought they had enough margin to work with but obviously that wasn’t the case.
Grady also has an excellently made video about the leaning Millennium Tower in SF and what they’re doing while still trying to fix it. ▶ this video
It's been interesting watching this unfold, some good videos around it: Most recent report from engineer mentioned in article to oversight committee: link (Item 8, around 2 hours in) New Project Aims To Reinforce, Level Out Millennium Tower - link What Really Happened at the Millennium Tower? - ▶ this video SF Millennium Tower Tilts Quarter Inch in Four Days - link Despite Warnings, Repairs on San Francisco’s Millennium Tower Caused Additional Sinking - link