San Francisco

Cracked Millennium Tower Window Being Secured, Yellow Tag Showdown Over

A worker suspended out of an open window managed Friday to use squeegees to apply protective film over that cracked window on the 36th floor of the Millennium Tower — work that helped convince city building inspectors to call off their threat to declare the building a hazard.

While a crew of 11 was involved in the job, NBC Bay Area’s exclusive video shows only one at a time could actually lean out along the side of the troubled tower to seal off the cracked window next to it.

The work was rushed after the city’s Department of Building Inspection issued a threat to yellow tag the building as a safety hazard unless the window was protected and more scaffolding was installed below to protect pedestrians from the possibility of falling glass. That scaffolding was going up while the work above was going on.

Tom Miller, an attorney for the tower’s homeowners association, said he was told late Thursday that proposed strategy had convinced the city to lift the threat.

"We were able to give DBI what they wanted in terms of their demands we were able to tape up the window this morning, secure it in place," Miller said, "and also move forward with our investigation early next week."

That investigation, he said, will involve examining the failed window along with others directly above and below. "To open it up and find out what happened, what caused that crack in the first place."

The investigation may settle whether the window failed because of pressure from the tower that is now leaning 18 inches to that side.

The cost of the scaffolding installation alone was $150,000 as homeowners are already saddled with mounting litigation bills and consultant costs.

"It requires a bit of forbearance by all the people in the building," Mayer said.

"This has been a stressful and to some extent needlessly stressful," he added, saying that residents look forward to seeing the scaffolding come down as soon as possible.

"Having that wrapping around the building just continues the heightened anxiety," Mayer said.

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