San Francisco’s Millennium Tower Is Literally Sinking

If it tilts any further, the elevators will become unusable. Today the New York Times picks up the story that has riveted San Francisco for months:

The developers of the luxurious Millennium Tower laid out the risks and potential defects of the 58-story building in minute detail when its apartments went on sale seven years ago.

The color and texture of the marble and granite hallways “may not be completely uniform,” said a disclosure statement given to potential buyers. The streets below the tower could be “congested and noisy,” and the landscaping in the common areas could change, subject to availability of certain species of plants.

But the 21-page disclosure document left out what owners of units in the buildings now say was a crucial detail: that the building had already sunk more than eight inches into the soft soil by the time it was completed in 2009, much more than engineers had anticipated.

“If they had disclosed the defect, I would have never bought here,” said Jerry Dodson, the owner of a two-bedroom apartment on the 42nd floor that he bought with his wife for $2.1 million. “Never was there a hint that the building was sinking beyond design.”

There much more at the link.