In the aftermath of this winter’s slew of storms breaking high-rise windows and blowing panels off buildings, the SF Board of Supervisors is learning that many of the broken windows may be from the same manufacturer.

The winter 2023 San Francisco storm season phenomenon of windows and panels flying off buildings started early in the year with a January 4 incident where a glass window flew off of Fox Plaza at Civic Center, likely due to high winds. More wind storms in February ripped metal panels off the SF PUC building. And then in March’s batch of wild storms, we saw a glass panel fly off 555 California Street, a window falling off the perpetually troubled Millennium Tower, and a Mission and Fremont Street office building suffering two broken window incidents within a week.

“As if the sea level rise and orange skies weren’t enough, last month over the course of a couple of weeks, the windows in seven different downtown buildings failed, raining glass down onto the sidewalks below,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin said while introducing new façade inspection legislation at Monday’s SF Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting.

“The only miracle here was nobody got seriously hurt,” he added. “People could have been killed.”

These windows are supposed to be able to survive hurricane-force wind gusts of up to 120 miles per hour, yet failed in winds that were nowhere near that strong. Peskin brought up a theory into why so many windows, even in buildings less than ten years old, broke or flew off in the high winds.

“I have heard, anecdotally and it is yet to be proven, that all of the three modern buildings where the glass failed, they were all produced by the same manufacturer,” Peskin said Monday. “So there may be impurities in the glass.”

A 2016 amendment to the existing San Francisco building code required Department of Building Inspection façade inspections to be completed by the end of 2021 for the city’s oldest high-rise buildings that predate 1910 (and there are actually 214 of those!). By that amendment, buildings completed between 1910-1926 had their façade inspections required to be finished by the end of this year, with successive cohort requirements going forward by the building's age. Buildings completed after 1998 wouldn’t require façade inspections for another 30 years.

That assumed age was the main factor in window failures. But we learned during this year’s storms that assumption may not hold true — Millennium Tower was certified for occupancy in 2009, the 350 Mission that had two busted windows was certified in 2015, a 1400 Mission Street building where windows broke was certified in 2016.

Peskin’s proposed legislation would currently add a requirement that buildings completed after 1998, and 15 stories or taller, would be required to produce façade inspection reports by November 1, 2023 (e.g., the beginning of next winter’s storm season). Peskin said 71 buildings meet this criteria. Not all of them are office buildings, many are condos and apartment buildings. The Land Use and Transportation Committee voted to reconsider the legislation next week, with a chance to field more information from the Department of Building Inspection over the next seven days.

Related: Windows Flying Off SF High-Rises Freaks Out City Hall, Beefed-Up Regulations and Inspections On the Way [SFist]

Image: @BrokeAssStuart via Twitter

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

Another storm has brought another set of broken windows to 350 Mission Street, the high-rise otherwise known as Salesforce East, in a story that’s becoming frighteningly common this month.

The glass-covered San Francisco high-rise at 350 Mission Street (at Fremont Street), lately called Salesforce East, is perhaps best known for its razzle-dazzle high-tech video wall in the ground floor lobby. But as we endure the umpteenth storm of this winter, 350 Mission is instead becoming known as a broken-window building. NBC Bay Area reports that more cracked and broken windows were discovered on that building Tuesday morning, its second busted-window incident in the past seven days of storms.

This building is not Salesforce Tower itself, but Salesforce leases most of the building. And in last Tuesday's storms, this very same 350 Mission building was found to have at least 20 broken or cracked windows. It’s unclear whether the broken windows reported today did in fact break today, or if they broke last week.

Main Street and Fremont Street were both closed to pedestrians and traffic for a few hours Tuesday morning, but they've since reopened. According to KTVU, “Engineers were able to secure the building and no injuries were reported.”

The video above is from last week’s window breakage. KTVU reported at that time that  the building was cited in a Department of Building Inspection violation for the many broken windows.

This is now the sixth damaged-window incident in the past week, and yes, something’s got to be done before people start getting killed. "I expect to introduce that legislation on April 4th as well as call hearings to bring national and international experts,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin told KTVU. “I mean this is not happening in Singapore with typhoons. This is not happening in Chicago, the windy city. Why is it happening here?"

Peskin says April 4, because regrettably, the board is not meeting today for its usual Tuesday hearing because of Spring Recess. That delay may prove unfortunate, because the way this windy winter has gone, falling windows and panels are suddenly occurring at a frequency we’ve never seen.

Related: Glass Being Blown Off Downtown SF Tower 555 California Street, Shelter-In-Place Order Issued [SFist]

Image: Kilroy Realty

The unusual, gale-force winds on Tuesday did plenty of damage across the Bay Area, including damage to windows on at least three downtown SF highrises.

Part of Mission Street downtown was closed Tuesday evening after at least one window came loose at Millennium Tower — which is something that has happened before in high winds. And around 20 windows reportedly failed at Salesforce Tower down the street, though it does not sound like any glass fell from that building.

As NBC Bay Area reports, cracked windows were found between the 11th and 30th floors of Salesforce Tower, on the Mission Street side of the building. This was according to Patrick Hannan from the SF Department of Building Inspection, which also sent inspectors to Millennium Tower, and to 50 California Street, which lost a window Tuesday between its 13th and 14th floors.

Millennium Tower is at 301 Mission Street, and Salesforce is at 415 Mission Street.

The Chronicle reports that there were no injuries related to either building's window failures, and "officials from the Department of Building Inspection worked with managers of the towers to start the repair process."

Both buildings have had window issues in the past. Cracks were reportedly discovered in two windows at Salesforce Tower in March 2019, though at the time, wind was not thought to be the cause. In February 2020, a window that a resident had propped open on the 41st floor of Millennium Tower blew off and fell to the street. Thankfully no one was injured in that incident.

These latest highrise window failures come just a week after several windows came loose at 555 California during another windy day.

Photo: Thom Mikovic

Cat window spotted in the Mission, shot by Gerard Livernois.

As seen by Demetrios Lyras.

Photo by Demetrios Lyras.

Photo by Demetrios Lyras.

Photo of 101 California Street by Demetrios Lyras.

Photo by Erik Wilson.

"Mission District Shop" by Demetrios Lyras.

"World of Wonder" by Darwin Bell.

Down in San Jose on Christmas morning, a mother dropped her young son out of a second-floor apartment window. Why? Well, according to reports, police had been called to her abode that morning after she locked herself in the bathroom with her kids. Police "forced their way into the room and discovered the child had already been thrown," notes AP. "[T]he child's 24-year-old mother saw police come toward her then jumped herself."

Luckily, the toddler suffered only minor bruising and a bump to the head.

The suspect, "who is not being named by The Associated Press because of the nature of the allegations," suffered broken bones during the fall. She will, presumably, be arrested and/or checked for mental stability, or lack thereof.

[SactoBee]

"Dome Colors Windows" by Demetrios Lyras.