A year after an open window broke in high winds at the troubled Millennium Tower, building officials recently told the city they have installed stronger equipment to better secure windows in, so far, 29 of the high-rise’s 419 units.
On March 21 of last year, a 49th level window of the tower at 301 Mission St. flapped in high winds and eventually slammed into the building, breaking the inner pane. Most of the debris ended up in the unit, but bits of glass flew across the street and broke windows at the Salesforce East building. No one was injured.
The Millennium was one of seven San Francisco high-rises that experienced window failures during the 2023 windstorms. In response, Supervisor Aaron Peskin pushed legislation to require 78 of the city's newer high-rise buildings to visually inspect windows to assure safety.
“It's just plain dangerous,” Peskin said in a recent interview. “I mean, it’s just a matter of time until glass is raining down and kills somebody on the street.”
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The Department of Building Inspection now issues weather alerts, urging high-rise owners to make sure their tenants and residents “close and latch any operable windows.’’
During an alert being issued last month, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit took video showing a lower floor window along Mission Street flapping in high winds. Two other windows were left open in upper levels, as well.
“The Millennium continues to be an outlier,” Peskin said of the window issues at the building.
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But tower officials told us in a statement they have a “detailed process” to minimize risk of another window failure in high winds.
That includes rigorous tracking of weather events, sending text alerts to residents to close their windows, and performing hourly checks in storms. While they could not account for the open windows we saw, they said that in the end, it’s up to owners to keep their windows closed.
The window failure last year came after a similar incident in 2020, when a window fell from the 41st floor and shattered on the pavement below. That incident prompted building officials to demand the tower install stronger stay arms to better secure opened windows in high winds.
When the window failed last year, however, Millennium officials said those improved stay arms were en route from China. They arrived in September of last year.
Millennium officials told city officials that, as of the end of February, new arms have been installed in 29 of the upper floor units of the 58-story building, said Patrick Hannan, spokesman for the Department of Building Inspection. They said in a statement to NBC Bay Area that replacing of windows in upper floor units can take a week because there are many windows in some of the larger units.
Hannan says the permit for the work will lapse in June, but the deadline could be extended to allow the work to be completed.
Peskin says the city cannot afford to wait.
“The Millennium Tower organization has made repeated excuses,” he said. “They need to get their act together.”
Millennium officials recently told the city that based on an up-close inspection of a quarter of the tower’s facade, they believe all the windows are stable and safe. But under Peskin’s ordinance, the tower has until the end of next month to complete visual checks on 100% of windows along with the up-close inspections of 25% of windows.
