Owners of the troubled Millennium Tower could soon face hefty fines -- simply for leaving their windows open at the wrong time.
The tower, notorious for its leaning and sinking, has been dealing with separate window problems dating back to before February 2020.
That’s when an open window broke free in high winds and plunged from a 41st floor unit of the high-rise. No one was injured, but San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection ordered the tower to install a stronger support system to better secure its open windows.
Those stronger “stay” arms had yet to be installed three years later, when, in March of last year, a 49th level window left open in a windstorm broke free and slammed against the high-rise. Flying debris broke many more windows at the Salesforce East building, which is just across the street. Luckily, no one was injured.
At the time, tower officials said the stronger support arms mandated by city officials were awaiting shipment from China. The new hardware arrived last Fall. And while installation work is now ongoing, city officials say that so far, only a third of the windows have the upgraded supports needed for safety.
“I mean, obviously, the progress has been very frustrating and very slow,” said San Francisco city Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who has long been a critic of tower management. “The good news is they are, actually, now replacing eight windows every working day of the week.”
Yet even at that pace, he says, many of the tower’s windows will not be upgraded – and so will still be vulnerable – should there be significant windstorms this winter. The work is now expected to be complete by March of next year.
As a stop-gap solution, the tower’s governing board has been urging residents to close their windows in high winds. The board will meet next week to consider whether to fine residents up to $10,000 for failing to close them during wind events, or leaving them open when they have left their units.
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“Frankly, it sounds a little crazy to me,” said Sandra Gottlieb, an attorney who specializes in condo association laws.
But, she says, the potentially hazardous situation with the falling Millennium Tower windows could well justify such a strong penalty.
“It is incumbent upon the board to make sure that the residents and the structure itself is properly protected,” she said in a recent interview.
The proposal would not only threaten fines, but would make owners “solely responsible for any damage caused by the windows or to the windows.”
In a statement, the tower acknowledged there has been “significant” attention from the media and city officials on the window issue. The proposed fine, it says, is designed to “deter negligent behavior” and preserve “the safety and the well-being of residents and neighbors.”
But it turns out failing windows is not the only problem that has continued after the fix stabilized the building in June of last year. Plumbing backups continue as well.
Recently, the tower’s association told owners to hire plumbing crews to regularly clean out drain lines, whether they are backed up or not. The goal, according to the notice, is simply to be proactive.
But some experts have tied the string of plumbing backups on the tower’s stability issues. In fact, the tower’s own engineer had warned that backups could be an unpleasant byproduct of the Millennium’s sinking and leaning. The tower is now leaning 29 inches at the top, having leaned 10 more inches since the engineer warned that tilting could reduce the angle on lines needed to assure proper drainage of some units.
But Millennium officials insist that all the backups are the product of other factors, like owners flushing sanitary wipes or using the wrong detergent.
Residents of the tower’s third floor have long complained that they are being hit with repeated backups. One of them, Mehrdad Mostafavi, returned home in June of last year to find his kitchen sink overflowing with brown muck. Tests later confirmed it was sewage tainted “black water.” The tower association blamed the backup on people flushing wipes.
Mostafavi and his wife Jenn Nielsen were forced to move out of a unit that tests show is contaminated with black mold. The couple recently donned hazmat suits to survey the damage caused by yet another backup – this one in the laundry area of the now vacant unit that occurred in March. The tower blames the latest mess on neighbors using the wrong detergent.
But Mostafavi recently filed a $7 million lawsuit, accusing the Millennium Tower Homeowner Association of negligently maintaining the plumbing system. The tower said in statement that it believes the suit is “without merit.”
Peskin, meanwhile, says there’s at least one positive turn in the long-running saga.
“The Millennium Tower – sinking, tilting, window failures, sewer backups -- at least the windows are about to be finished.”
