Millennium Tower reports to City on Cracked Window

An engineering firm mandated by the owners of the Millennium Tower to evaluate the cracked window of the 36th floor suggested in a report Friday that tilt problems of the tower may be causing the this sudden failure. – historic building

As the tower maintenance platform is down, a drone will be deployed on Saturday morning to get the first outside view of the window. Then, to secure the faulty window from the outside, it will take someone to push back from the top of the building.

The NBC Bay Area investigation unit was the first to report the sudden failure of the window during Labor Day weekend. In response, the building inspection department of the city issued a quote and ordered the owners to assess the situation by Friday. The city then ordered reinforced barriers on the sidewalk to better protect pedestrians against the risk of falling glass.

The head of the owners' association quickly suggested that the problem was isolated or even a construction fault.

But the report to the city by an engineer of Allana Buick and Bers suggested that tilt could be the cause. But the engineer also said that one of the keys to understanding the cause was the exterior dimensions of the building's facade, known as the curtain wall, near the failing window.

"In order to determine why the glass is cracked, a practical exterior examination is needed to measure the frames of the curtain walls and see why the glass was requested," said Karim Allana, one of the leaders of the company based in Palo Alto. strengthen.

"The existing curtain wall system is designed to allow the deviation of the building due to wind forces and seismic forces, without causing glass failure," Allana added in a letter to the lawyer. # 39; homeowners association.

"The fact that this piece of glass has failed because of the building's tilt may be a localized or potentially more widespread defect," Allana said. "In addition, an investigation on the exterior of the building is necessary to understand and evaluate the problem."

This final decision could take several weeks, according to Tom Miller, a lawyer with the Homeowners Association. He says it may take so long to get a replacement window because the one that is cracked is no longer manufactured.

"We want to do both the investigation and the replacement of this window," Mr. Miller said Friday, "but most of all, we want to secure this cracked exterior window with tape that will prevent any further movement of this window cracked and any fragment of this window to move and fall ".

He said the hope is that the fractured window – which is covered with silicone – will be secured once and for all early next week.