The leaning tower of San Francisco: tilting, sinking high-rise raises alarm

Pamela Buttery noticed something peculiar six years ago while practising golf putting in her 57th-floor apartment at the luxurious Millennium Tower. The ball kept veering to the same corner of her living room.

Those were among the first signs for residents of the sleek, mirrored high-rise that something was wrong.

The 58-storey building has gained notoriety in recent weeks as the “leaning tower of San Francisco.” But it’s not just leaning. It’s sinking, too. And engineers hired to assess the problem say it shows no immediate sign of stopping.

“What concerns me most is the tilting,” says Buttery, 76, a retired real estate developer. “Is it safe to stay here? For how long?”

Completed seven years ago, the tower so far has sunk 40cm into the soft soil and landfill of San Francisco’s crowded financial district. But it’s not sinking evenly, which has created a 5cm tilt at the base — and a roughly 15cm lean at the top.

By comparison, Italy’s famed Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning more than 4.5 metres. But in a major earthquake fault zone, the Millennium Tower’s structural problems have raised alarm and become the focus of a public scandal.