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The department also took Millennium’s managers to task for not being more communicative about the crack and their efforts to find the cause. The department said it “continues to be frustrated with the communication” with the tower’s managers over a variety of issues.
“We often do not find out information about the building until we first receive calls about an issue from the media or read them in a news report,” the department said in its letter Wednesday.
— San Francisco Chronicle
In the ongoing saga of the sinking Millennium Tower, the City of San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection has given the tower's managers until tomorrow to comply with a handful of safety measures, in response to a crack that appeared on a window on the 36th floor earlier this month. If... View full entry
A large crack formed in a window at the sinking and tilting Millennium Tower over the Labor Day weekend, prompting officials there to block off part of the sidewalk on Mission Street as a precaution, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has learned. City inspectors issued a notice of violation on Tuesday, giving the Millennium management 72 hours to report back on the extent of the problem and the soundness of the building’s façade in light of the failure. — nbcbayarea.com
The latest safety concern over San Francisco's sinking Millennium Tower occurred Labor Day weekend when residents heard creaking sounds followed by a loud popping noise in the building. Soon after the incident a resident living on the 36th floor found a crack in his window. The high rise is... View full entry
Studio Gang reveals a new, 400-foot tall residential tower called "MIRA" for San Francisco's Transbay neighborhood. The building features classic bay windows staggered in a twisting design around the structure. "MIRA" high rise rendering by Studio Gang, located in San Francisco. Image: Studio... View full entry
Construction has begun on a steel net to prevent people from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, after years of debate over whether such an obstacle would mar the bridge’s romantic image.
For at least the next two years, crews will toil throughout the night to build a coarse web of marine cable beneath the Art Deco span that is both an international symbol for engineering beauty and a magnet for suicides.
— San Francisco Chronicle
"Oakland companies Shimmick Construction Co. and Danny’s Construction Co. won the contract to design and build the net for $211 million — about three times what the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District Board of Directors had proposed when it put the project out for bid in... View full entry
In a city where a tilting 58-story tower has attracted international attention, the construction of big buildings now is scrutinized for any sign that a newcomer might be causing structural damage to its neighbors.
Which is why a full investigation was launched this winter after an anonymous complaint that the excavations for a pair of new, extra-tall towers were harming the 18-story high-rise in between.
And the scrutiny is certain to continue [...].
— San Francisco Chronicle
"The building in question is 25 Jessie St., an 18-story tower from the early 1980s," reports the SF Chronicle, and so far the structure has only sunk less than an inch—far less than the infamous Millennium "Leaning" Tower just two blocks away that has sunk 17 inches and tilted 14 inches to the... View full entry
San Francisco lives with the certainty that the Big One will come. But the city is also putting up taller and taller buildings clustered closer and closer together because of the state’s severe housing shortage. Now those competing pressures have prompted an anxious rethinking of building regulations. Experts are sending this message: The building code does not protect cities from earthquakes nearly as much as you might think. — New York Times
Taking a hard look at San Francisco's building codes, this NY Times piece goes in depth on what it means for city high rises if the next big earthquake hit. From the 1906 earthquake and fire to current seismic safety, concerns revolve around the number of skyscrapers built on liquefaction zones... View full entry
The Manhattan skyline is one of the world’s most iconic, but it wouldn’t be complete without the city’s famed residential supertalls. Luxury buildings like 432 Park Ave and One57 have set a high bar in the era of tower living, but the past decade has seen the vertical lifestyle catching on across the globe—from Boston to Monaco to New Orleans. — quartzy.qz.com
Check out these luxury residential skyscrapers outside of NYC: Boston, MA Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, Echelon Seaport is Boston's latest project located in the Seaport District. This new luxury condo and apartment development is currently under construction with a completion date of 2020. ... View full entry
The City quietly told developers this week that it will no longer fund a 150-unit affordable senior housing project proposed in the wealthy Forest Hill neighborhood, citing rising costs and neighborhood pushback. [...]
Neighbors have also railed against the project at community meetings since 2016 when the project was first funded, claiming impoverished tenants at the affordable housing project would endanger their neighborhood.
— San Francisco Examiner
All of which makes for a nuanced tower, conscientious and self-assured even as it reorients the skyline and redefines San Francisco’s visual image. But there’s also an air of detachment, as if the creators were so busy being tasteful they forgot that big buildings can be fun.
In the works for a decade, and with plenty of work left to do, the 1.42 million-square-foot tower at First and Mission streets opened quietly Monday.
— San Francisco Chronicle
John King, the San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic, reviews Pelli Clarke Pelli's brand new Salesforce Tower which recently welcomed its first occupants. "And while it won’t ever gain visual swagger," King writes, "you might come to like it more than you expect." At 1,070 feet... View full entry
In a December 2016 assessment of the issue obtained by NBC Bay Area, Palo Alto-based building consultants Allana Buick & Bers Inc. trace the odors to openings between the building’s façade, or curtain wall, and the core structure.
The consultants point to the “excessive” settlement as a likely source of the issue, adding, “This condition may be more widespread than these two test areas and may be present in the entire stack. We recommend further investigation of this issue.”
— NBC Bay Area
New fire hazards have been found in San Francisco's infamous Millennium Tower, making the luxury high-rise that has sunk 17 inches since 2009 even less safe than previously thought. According to a December 2016 assessment carried out by building consultants Allana Buick & Bers Inc., gaps... View full entry
In San Francisco, autonomous crime-fighting robots that are used to patrol parking lots, sports arenas, and tech company campuses are now being deployed to keep away homeless people. [...]
Last week, the City of San Francisco ordered the SF SPCA to keep its robot off the streets or be fined up to $1,000 per day for operating on sidewalks without a permit [...]
— Business Insider
When you're in Silicon Valley, everything looks like a tech solution. The same logic has been increasingly applied to San Francisco's overwhelming homelessness crisis where a growing legion of security robots — armed with lasers, sensors, cameras, and GPS — have been autonomously patrolling... View full entry
Built in the heart of San Francisco's Hayes Valley, 400 Grove is a new mixed-use development designed by locally based Fougeron Architecture. At the corner of Grove and Gough streets, the project site opened up after the removal of the Central Freeway in 2003 to reconnect Hayes Valley with other... View full entry
Beginning tomorrow, the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, will host Designing Material Innovation, an exhibition being held on the College's Back Lot—soon to be converted into their new campus by Studio Gang—which will put on display new approaches to material, fabrication... View full entry
As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has tapped the Culver City-based firm wHY to design their new renovation and expansion plans. The architecture practice headed by Kulapat Yantrasast, has become known over the years for conjuring environments that... View full entry
San Francisco is one of the many cities in the U.S. threatened by climate change. Scientific projections predict that sea level rise is likely to push tides upwards with accelerating force in the coming decades and a 2012 study estimated that the average high tide within San Francisco Bay could... View full entry
