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What Really Happened at the Millennium Tower?

13 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this explainer2 months2022–2023 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN commenters point to it as the well-made, detailed explanation of the Millennium Tower debacle whenever the tower comes up.

Practical Engineering explains why San Francisco's Millennium Tower is sinking and tilting, covering how geology and foundation design (friction piles in the Colma Formation) affect skyscrapers. It also covers the fix being attempted.

“Grady also has an excellently made video about the leaning Millennium Tower in SF” (HN, 2022)

2 recommendations · 1 citations · Explainers · partly dated

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@dodgerdan Jul 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Myths about construction
Grady also has an excellently made video about the leaning Millennium Tower in SF and what they’re doing while still trying to fix it. [this video]
Well-made video on the leaning Millennium Tower.
@mc32 Jan 2023 Recommends
on HN thread CA Cities to Lose All Zoning Powers in 2 Days
Here is someone who goes into detail about the Millennium Tower debacle: [this video] In short, shortcuts, or more charitably, miscalculations. They really thought they had enough margin to work with but obviously that wasn’t the case.
Detailed explanation of the Millennium Tower debacle.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@neom Jan 2022 Cites it
on HN thread San Francisco Millennium Tower tilting 3 inches per year
It's been interesting watching this unfold, some good videos around it: Most recent report from engineer mentioned in article to oversight committee: [link] (Item 8, around 2 hours in) New Project Aims To Reinforce, Level Out Millennium Tower - [link] What Really Happened at the Millennium Tower? - [this video] SF Millennium Tower Tilts Quarter Inch in Four Days - [link] Despite Warnings, Repairs on San Francisco’s Millennium Tower Caused Additional Sinking - [link]
Listed among videos about the tower's sinking.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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