The Millennium tower of San Francisco is being sunk!

The Millennium Tower is a high-rise luxurious building and a landmark of San Francisco. The impressive structure stands out and is the tallest residential building in San Francisco, but recently, structural problems have been reported. The tower has been sinking into the ground and there is concern for even more serious damage.

The Millennium Tower is a high-rise luxurious building and a landmark of San Francisco. The impressive structure stands out and is the tallest residential building in San Francisco, but recently, structural problems have been reported. The tower has been sinking into the ground and there is concern for even more serious damage.

The Millennium tower is located in Yerba Buena, San Francisco and consists of 58 stories(196.6m tall), which are for residences and entertainment. Inside, people enjoy the pools, the restaurants and, predominantly, the panoramic view! Designed by Handel Architects and constructed by Webcor Builders, the Millennium Tower has been completed since 2009 and its cost had been estimated to $350 million! Nevertheless, two years later, in 2010, not negligible settlement was noted.  By now, the tower has settled 40.64cm (16 inches) and tilted 5.08 cm (2 inches) towards the northwest. This is obviously important as such amount of settlement is not justified.

 The owners claim that neighboring construction may be responsible for the damage. Also the structure isn't steel-framed, as most skyscrapers used to be, and is next to the bay, where the subsurface conditions consist of various soft soils! The design of the foundations are drawing attention as the deep foundations reach stiff soils, but do not reach deeper where more stable bedrock is encountered.

This may affect the market value of the structure, and the whole situation is likely to result in expensive litigation. 

sf.curbed, en.wikipedia, nytimes