Sponsored link
Saturday, June 21, 2025

Sponsored link

News + PoliticsKey documents in Millennium Tower fiasco have gone missing

Key documents in Millennium Tower fiasco have gone missing

Peskin says DBI records retention is "scandalous" as he seeks answers on the Leaning Tower of SoMa

-

Two binders including critical information about the Millennium Tower, also known as the Leaning Tower of Soma, have gone missing, information presented at a hearing last week shows.

Distinguished structural engineer Hardip Pannu testifies at City Hall
Distinguished structural engineer Hardip Pannu testifies at City Hall

The documents were part of the record that structural engineer Hardip Pannu apparently provided to the city and the developer after he was brought in to do additional peer review on the project.

The information came out at a hearing called by Sup. Aaron Peskin, who has spent months trying to figure out how the city approved, and Millennium Partners built, a 58-story tower that has sunk 16 inches and is tilting.

Pannu, an eminent engineer and expert on the construction of highrise buildings, testified under oath, and provided 113 pages of information, including memos and minutes of meetings involving him, Department of Building Inspection officials, and representatives of the developers’ consulting engineer.

Among other things, the records that were produced show that at a Feb. 14, 2006 meeting, when Millennium was getting ready to drive pilings for the building, Pannu noted that

“A lot has changed at SFDBI since we last met on July 15, 2005. There is an increased political interest in how highrise buildings are designed and reviewed.”

Hanson Tom, a senior official at DBI, was at the meeting.

Pile driving was set to begin the next week.

Pannu said he “did not recall” that meeting or the meaning of his comments.

Sponsored link

Help us save local journalism!

Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.

The documents suggest that Pannu called for more extensive computer monitoring of what is called “nonlinear” force distribution in the case of an earthquake. But when Peskin asked for more detail about it, Pannu said he said he did not recall his comments.

He confirmed that during his discussions, he was concerned about stabilization pieces called “outriggers.” An NBC investigation shows that there some serious problems with those structural items.

The documents show that Pannu suggested that “the outriggers are unsual in shape … nonlinear time history of analysis should be performed.”

He wasn’t clear on whether that ever happened.

Peskin noted that the documents show that “there is reference to [DeSimone Consulting Engineers, hired by Millennium], saying that two binders, Peer Review 1 and Peer Review 2, were provided in May 2006. Do you have copies?”

Pannu: “I don’t believe so.”

The rest of the hearing was a bit disturbing: It’s clear that Pannu had some serious problems with the building’s seismic safety, and that he brought those concerns to the developer, the city, and the developer’s engineer. But there is, Peskin noted, no evidence in the available record that the de1veloper actually responded to and resolved those concerns.

Hanson Tom, the principal building engineer at DBI, did not appear at the hearing. But Ron Tom, assistant director of the agency, was on hand.

Peskin:

“There is plenty of correspondence that Mr. Pannu gave us referring to two binders that have yet to be produced in all of the thousands of pages that you guys have produced. There is correspondence wherein Hanson Tom asks that the city be copied on all communications between Mr. Pannu and Millenium Partners and that the binders become the possession of the Department of Building Inspection. Do you have any information on this?

Ron Tom: “I am not aware of this.”

This is, of course, potentially critical information about, as Peskin notes, not only what happened but who knew what and when.

And nobody at City Hall can find it.

The missing records infuriated Peskin: “I have to say, and I don’t say this lightly,” he told me, “that the Department of Building Inspection’s document retention policies are scandalous.”

That, Sup. Peskin, would seem to be an understatement.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
Sponsored link
Sponsored link

Featured

Funding Muni and BART: Should the very rich also pay?

Wiener makes clear that taxing the billionaires is not a priority as he seeks ways to fund transit

Under the Stars: Ron Trent convenes boogie royalty for ‘Lift Off’

Plus: A Juneteenth punk party? Third annual Bliss Fest at Presidio Theatre? Plan accordingly.

Bravery among the books: ‘The Librarians’ fight censorship

Frameline documentary follows those battling the frenzy to erase LGBTQ-related stories from schools.

More by this author

Funding Muni and BART: Should the very rich also pay?

Wiener makes clear that taxing the billionaires is not a priority as he seeks ways to fund transit

The supes will at last have a serious discussion about income inequality and taxing the rich

Chen measure would ask the state Legislature to allow a local income and wealth tax on the richest San Franciscans

Appeals Board hearing raises key issue about protecting existing rental units

Planning Department wants to allow the removal of what evidence shows was a rent-controlled housing unit, setting a potentially dangerous precedent
Sponsored link

You might also likeRELATED