Six San Francisco “window failure” incidents in a two-week span have the mayor, supervisors, and the DBI vowing a safety crackdown, but it’s unclear any of them understand why so many buildings are having their windows shattered, cracked, or even falling to the ground.

The month of March brought wind storms for the ages, with gusts reaching 77 miles per hour here in San Francisco. That led to a frankly terrifying rash of incidents where a glass panel flew off 555 California Street, a window flew off the Millennium Tower, and the 350 Mission Street building known as Salesforce East saw two broken window incidents in a week, for a total of six incidents that the SF Department of Building Inspection (DBI) charitably calls “glass failures.”  

In fairness, this is happening in Oakland too. But that’s no comfort to Mayor Breed, the SF Board of Supervisors, or the DBI, whom the SF Business Times reports are all introducing new inspections and building regulations to hopefully put a halt to all these windows flying off buildings.

That seems reassuring, except that beyond the high winds (which cannot be prevented), no one seems sure yet what exactly is leading to these dangerous window mishaps. “I mean this is not happening in Singapore with typhoons. This is not happening in Chicago, the windy city. Why is it happening here?" Supervisor Aaron Peskin said to KTVU after the March 22 storm. "I expect to introduce [window] legislation on April 4th as well as call hearings to bring national and international experts.”

That April 4th board meeting is in progress as of this writing, so we’ll know more about what he’s requesting later today.

For her part, Mayor Breed announced new safety requirements Tuesday morning. “The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI) will now require accelerated façade inspections for San Francisco buildings that are 15 stories or taller and built after 1998,” Breed’s office said in their announcement. “Owners of these buildings will now be required to provide a licensed architect or engineer evaluation of the entire building façade to ensure the safety and stability of all façade elements, including windows.”

Again, very reassuring language, but KRON4 points out an obvious oversight here. “Of the six buildings that experienced glass failure during the storms, three are less than 30 years old,” that station points out. So if the incidents are split evenly between older and newer buildings, it seems arguable whether this “built after 1998” clause is addressing the real problem here.

We should split hairs here on that “six buildings” description: KPIX details that five SF buildings had glass failures March 14-28, yet two of these incidents happened at 350 Mission Street (completed in 2015, so a newer building) for a total of six incidents. But even prior to that wild, windy two weeks of March 14-28, we saw glass fly off Fox Plaza on January 4, and wind ripping panels off the SFPUC building in February. So determining a pattern here may not be easy.

And just to address the unspoken elephant in the room… Do we really trust San Francisco DBI to identify and correct these window hazards? That agency’s reputation is in the toilet right now over bribes and kickbacks sometimes granted for permitting shoddy work. Regrettably, they’re the only DBI we have. And while no one has been significantly injured yet by these “glass failures” yet, we are faced with the unsettling prospect that if high winds continue, we may be putting our lives in the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection’s hands.

Related: Yet More High-Rise Windows Crack as Salesforce East Has Second Broken Window Incident In a Week [SFist]

Image: via Swinerton

Today's 30-plus-mile-an-hour winds shattered a window on the 41st floor of the tilting SoMa building; the Big Bad Wolf could never.

Nearby Citizen App users were quick to report broken glass strung at the intersection of Mission and Fremont Streets. Police have been called on the scene, closing down the stretch of concrete while clean up crews sort things out; the intersection is currently closed to both vehicles and pedestrians. Though the glass was first thought to have broken and fallen from the 44th floor, the Chronicle noted the shattering, actually, occurred on the 41st level.

Window Blown Out From Millennium Tower @CitizenApp

Mission St & Fremont St 11:14:48 AM PST

No injuries have been reported, and on-site firefighters are working to secure the window to the building. And, not surprisingly, a building inspector is being requested to survey the damage.

Window Blown Out From Millennium Tower @CitizenApp

Mission St & Fremont St 11:14:48 AM PST

Millennium Tower is infamous for its structural and foundational problems— "the city's Leaning Tower of Pisa"— which has sunk and tilted some 18 inches toward the north-west since it was opened to residents in 2009. According to the Chronicle, the City of San Francisco green-lit a $100M budget to fix the leaning structure, which will include the installation of 52 new piles that extend into the bedrock beneath the soils, connecting to the existing foundation for increased stability and strength.

Related: Sinking Millennium Tower Would Survive 'The Big One,' Experts Insist

Sinking Millennium Tower Will Tilt 10 More Inches By 2019, Lawyers Argue

Image: Screenshot via Citizen App

With a fondness for black and red ink, a tenant at Oak and Broderick seems peeved with their current living situation, which allegedly involves rats, urine, fecal matter, and an illegal rent increase.

Car break-in victim's note: "Please do not break me one more time, Thank you"

Ouch. Is this your car? Our condolences. Yesterday's breezy breezes by DPark seem to have dislodged a branch directly into your rear window. If you need more photos for insurance, let us know -- we've got a bunch. In the mean time, everyone else can busy themselves with feeling smug for not owning this car.

Oh, and you're probably wondering who that guy is.

As we were photographing this epic scene, a Guatemalan walked past and insisted -- gesturally -- that we take his picture amidst the carnage. All he could say in English was "David" and "Guatemalan," and he enthusiastically posed next to the vehicle looking tough. Er ... okay. Then we shrugged at each other for about 5 minutes because neither of us could figure out how to communicate with each other. So anyway, here's David, ladies and gentlemen.

Granted, Gap, Inc. will one day tenderize, marinated, season, sear, let rest, carve, and then eat your first born -- that is, if they are in fact as diabolical as we're led to believe -- but their store's window (at Powell and Market) is most stellar. Here's an image of it in all its vertical multi-colored glory.

An added bonus: the Hitchcockian silhouette.


Image credit: Dead Slow's Flickr page (which we recommend for choice visual stimuli!)