What Really Happened at the Millennium Tower?

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Speaking as a geotechnical engineer, this is the best project I’m glad I never worked on.

At least they didn't build it in an area prone to earthquakes and liquefaction.

I did some geotechnical drilling in the Bay Area for a couple years and I hated that bay clay. We called it bay mud as it was super dense, very sticky, and stinky. Fun job though as it was very interesting to literally see the different layers of soil beneath you as you pull out sections of soil and rock. Bedrock coring was my favorite because we would drill and pull out a cylindrical tube of solid rock and we could see all the layering of millions of years of rock formations.

This video was made 7 mos. ago and Hamburger has made more mods to his proposed repair by reducing the number of piles from as I recall, 52 down to 18. This will produce less vibration during installation but pile loading will increase. The fact that they keep tweaking and tweaking the design suggests to me that ultimately this bldg will be torn down or at minimum some number of floors will be removed. All of these measures are stop gap to forestall the inevitable.

I've probably said this before, but I'll say it again: I'm pleasantly surprised and gratified that such technical videos appear to be so popular. I'm sure that a lot of it has to do with how well they are assembled and presented, but I think it also says a lot about people's interest in technical subjects. People are smarter than they're often given credit for, and subjects can be highly technical as long as they are also clearly explained. Thanks for what you do and how well that you do it.

Why didn't they just get the residents to put all their stuff at one side?

As an engineer (albeit in a rather different field) I can say that one of the most demoralizing things in my life have been situations where you discover “yet another problem” that threatens to unhinge the entire project. I have no idea whether and where the mistakes may have been made, but I empathize with what the various engineers in this story must have (and are likely still) gone/going through…

I was working on the new construction as a drywall, metal stud framer. The year was winter of 2008 . The windows weren’t installed on many floors and wind would come in and take out anything that wasn’t tied down. The fog would be so thick inside that you couldn’t see but 20’ and the cold temperatures coupled with wind was a challenge. I have some great memories of this project. I was 44 at the time, now 58 and retired from local 152 Martinez Ca. 36 years of framing in the city. The company was Anning Johnson Co. and the foreman’s name Jim Hayden (Retired) and Ted both long time employees of AJ. Thank you for sharing.

When The excavator was digging the basement for my new house we found bedrock just a few feet deeper than the original depth planned ... I paid extra to dig down to bedrock. The footings are drilled and pinned to that bedrock, and the ten foot ceilings in the basement make it a unique living space.

“This structure is incomplete and already tilting” “No worries, just keep building”

A follow up on this would be great. From what I saw in December 2023 significant issues were still ongoing

I can't believe I'm 2/3 the way through a video about clay consolidation and actually anxious to see the ending. This is thrilling.

There's something uniquely unsettling about such a large building tilting.

6:41 - a comprehensive settlement... (of the legal kind) 😆

Jeez, this channel is addicting. I love knowing how things work and am especially interested in infrastructure stuff you can't always see. It also helps that I'm in San Antonio so I see local stuff I've wondered about.

The YouTube channel "Building Integrity" had an interesting update on this a couple days ago where he predicted that the steel plates transferring the hydraulic load into the concrete are way too small. Now I'm the wrong kind of engineer to have an opinion on this but there might be a chance for an update video if this whole rescue plan fails spectacularly 😄

Channels like this are literally all I wanted as a kid while watching shows like modern marvels. Its so fun and the content is informative.

I remember the master technician who came to install our new catheterization lab in our hospital. $2.2 million of new equipment. He was complaining that the new concrete ceiling was not quite parallel with the floor, so the suspended gantries for the equipment would tend to drift a bit. He asked me, the chief of the department, how this could be if the ceiling contractor had used laser levels as called for in the specs. I had not the courage to tell him that the guy had moved a stick around to measure the distance between the floor and ceiling.

I happened upon this video and am I glad a did. What a serendipitous find it was. Your explanation of what is going on at Millennium Tower is, perhaps, the best comprehensive overview I have ever heard...from the beginning of this ordeal back in 2016. The manner with which you explain the engineering situation even as you allow the listener to remain interested in the topic...is outstanding. I am not an engineer but you kept my interest for the entire video. You remind me of the professors I had as an undergrad who explained things so well, you actually didn't want the class to come to an end each day. Great job!