Speaker: Ronald Hamburger

REPAIR OF THE MILLENNIUM TOWER

By: Ronald O. Hamburger, SE

Constructed in 2005-2009, the 58 story Millennium Tower, in San Francisco, has settled more than 18 inches and tilted approximately 24-inches to the northwest.  Litigation initiated in 2016 with homeowners seeking damages from the original development team and other parties.  Under negotiated agreement the building is now undergoing a voluntary $100 million foundation upgrade to arrest building settlement and allow for gradual recovery of tilt.  The upgrade involves installation of new piles, extending to bedrock, along two of the building’s sides, and jacking of load onto the new piles.  Construction initiated in November 2020 and is projected to end in late 2022.  Mr. Hamburger will discuss the causative factor for the original settlement, details of the foundation upgrade, and issues that arose during construction.

Speaker Bio:

Ronald O. Hamburger, SE, Senior Principal and Chairman of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. has more than 45 years’ structural engineering design, education, construction, and failure investigation experience.  For more than 30 years, he has been active in leading the development of structural engineering design guides and building code requirements.  He presently serves as chair of the ASCE 7 Committee on Minimum Loads for Buildings and Other Structures and is a member of the AISC Committee on Specifications.  He is a past President of the Structural Engineers Association of California and the National Council of Structural Engineering Associations.  In 2015 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of this work.

Speaker Company: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.