More than 70 of San Francisco's tallest buildings – which had been exempt from window inspections for decades under city law – must now have complete façade checks under a mayor’s emergency order issued after last month’s string of high-rise window failures.
The order comes less than a week after NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit first reported that three of the six buildings hit by window failures were post-1998 high-rises that were previously exempt from façade inspections for the first 30 years after being built.
One of those exempt buildings was Salesforce East, completed in 2015. That building, at 350 Mission Street, had at least 19 windows failed during recent wind storms.
The city has now ordered that it conduct an emergency façade inspection within 14 days.
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Two other window failures were reported in other buildings on Mission Street – the Millennium Tower at 301 Mission and the building at 1400 Mission.
Those two buildings were also built after 1998 and should also have 30 year inspection exemptions - However, Millennium Tower had previously been ordered to inspect its windows after an open window broke free and fell in high winds back in 2020.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin was the first to call for more inspections. He welcomed the order as a good first step as he introduced new rules Tuesday that would give building owners until November to get inspections done.
“As we are trying to figure out why these buildings failed, this is going to give us knowledge about the rest of the buildings and whether they are going to perform in high wind events,” he said.
Under the emergency rules, owners of newer high rise buildings – 15-stories or taller – must commission an architect or engineer to perform checks of the entire building façade to “ensure the safety and stability of all façade elements, including windows,” according to a statement issued by the city.
The mayor issued an emergency declaration on March 27, granting the authority to city inspectors to impose new inspection requirements.
The inspections, city officials say, are designed to spot cracks or other signs that windows could be at risk of failing.
The new requirement will apply to 71 buildings that are 15 or more stories tall. The city has about 120 post-1998 buildings between 5 and 15 stories - and those are still exempt from inspections for the first 30 years after being built.
"This is an important step we are taking to ensure the safety of all of our buildings to keep our residents safe,” Mayor Breed said in a statement issued Tuesday. “I want to thank the Department of Building Inspection for their work to not only respond immediately to these glass issues during the storms, but also for quickly taking on this critical program expansion.”
All the six high-rise buildings with recent window failures are currently under 14-day orders to inspect windows to assure façade integrity. In addition to the three Mission street buildings - the three other buildings that were hit by failures were at 555 California Street, 50 California Street and Fox Plaza on Market Street.
