Live data from Hacker News

Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

sf.curbed.com

111–120 of 187 posts

Re: Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...And allowing them to pass on 100% of the cost to their renters.

So, you think landlords should operate at a loss for the benefit of their tenants?

Not at all. I do, however, feel there should be some incentive for him to shop around for a good price.

Re: Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

#114
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a kid I always wondered why so many of the taller buildings clustered up near DTX and then down that little strip down Boylston. As I got a bit earlier and learned what Boston originally looked like, it all made sense.

Of course, all of this landfill area is going to be the first to go back into the sea when the water rises. I figure our house is going to be riverfront property some day.

My house is one above where they draw the line on the sea rise lines. If I can stick around for a couple of hundred years I'm golden

Re: Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

#115
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a kid I always wondered why so many of the taller buildings clustered up near DTX and then down that little strip down Boylston. As I got a bit earlier and learned what Boston originally looked like, it all made sense.

Of course, all of this landfill area is going to be the first to go back into the sea when the water rises. I figure our house is going to be riverfront property some day.

My house is one above where they draw the line on the sea rise flood. If I can stick around for a couple of hundred years I'm golden

Re: Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

#116
post #81
post #65

This brings me back to a question I have frequently asked myself: What do you do with unsafe or old skyscrapers? How would you raze such a thing? What if it falls over, breaks apart or breaks in on itself (9/11 gives an idea)? To a layman (with slight acrophobia) skyscrapers seem pretty fragile, and I'd much rather have them built into the ground than towards the sky, but obviously they're holding up in general and I…

Slowly? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwf9LoS9Xt8

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing that. I work in the steel construction industry, we put buildings up all day every day, so watching them come down always interests me.

Re: Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

#117

Reminds me a bit of the CitiCorp Center fiasco. http://failures.wikispaces.com/Citicorp+Center Not only did the architect miscalculate the worst-case wind load on the building but the builder substituted cheaper bolted steel connections for the originally-specified fully welded connections. The problem was remediated by heavily reinforcing the connections of the diagonal steel braces in the frame of the building, but…

99% Invisible has a story on that building, and how the issue was discovered: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/structural-integrity/.

Re: Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

#118
post #89
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few examples: - Foundations of tall building must go to bedrock - not true. - Large buildings settling is unusual - not true. - Earthquake safety has been compromised in this case - not true. The structural engineering of tall buildings is complex. Multiple large engineering firms were involved in the design and construction of this building. Curbed (owned by Vox BTW) took the SF Cronicle article and cut out the mo…

It seems that you need to read more carefully and perhaps with more generosity. > A few examples: - Foundations of tall building must go to bedrock - not true. I see few if any comments here asserting, let alone asserting without qualification, that buildings must be built to bedrock. Further, heeding your own advice that expertise should be bidden, note that the apparently expert sources in the article said themselv…

you should instead be grateful for a curt correction to the unending stream of faux-expertise and hand-waving that HN has become

I only ever bother with the comments section anymore if only to watch the cringe-inducing attempts at "insight" by the same dozen or so users...

Re: Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

#119
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Millennium is on reclaimed land, they cannot determine whether or not they have drilled into bedrock. They drill into what's called the 'point of refusal'; a point where they can no longer drill deeper. Whether this is bedrock or even stable soil is somewhat vague.

Almost nothing in this comment is accurate: - You CAN determine the type of rock you are drilling through as well as it's relevant characteristics. Pieces of the material are brought to the surface with the drilling mud and instruments are put down the hole. - Builders DO NOT just stop drilling when their drill won't drill no further. (This made me laugh!) There is testing, design, design review, more testing during…

Maybe I have a poor definition of 'point of refusal', but this is the term developers use. Most developers in SF don't tell you whether they drilled down to bedrock or not.

Re: Millennium Tower is tilting, sinking

#120
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, you think landlords should operate at a loss for the benefit of their tenants?

So you think that capital investments (in this case property) should have zero risk, in other words guaranteed returns?

Obviously not. If the price is too high, people will not pay it.
Post reply on HN