A new report via a resident at the nicknamed Leaning Tower of San Francisco, a.k.a. Millennium Tower adds further fuel to homeowners' rage about the developer's alleged construction shortcuts. Against the advice of the homeowners' association attorney, 31st floor resident Paula Pretlow came forward to the media, in this case NBC Bay Area, to tell the story of her apparently defective unit in which she's been plagued, she says, with various smells over the years emanating through her vents from other units. She tells the station, "I've smelled soup, I have smelled barbecue, I smelled dirty diapers, I have smelled chemical smells. The list goes on and on, and none of it is mine."
Pretlow says that her unit was recently given a special inspection by crews hired by the homeowners' association which cut holes in her walls and conducted tests by sending smoke into gaps in walls from the unit below hers. The result was smoke billowing up into her vents, and photographs of multiple locations that were not properly sealed in her units walls, allowing for air, and smells, to get sucked into her air conditioning vents.
Pretlow is also perturbed that a section of the report on her unit's inspection that was given to her by the homeowners' association was redacted, and she has no idea why.
NBC Bay Area tried to speak to several other residents about the issue, but no one wanted to go on the record or appear on camera. One anonymous resident, however, said she had also experienced an "overpowering stench of mold or algae" in her unit.
Pretlow told the station that building management reached out to her late Friday "to say a fix is in the works."
Meanwhile, a new inspection by SF city building inspectors has concluded that the tower remains safe for occupancy, as the Chronicle reports, however "the deluxe skyscraper’s uneven settlement has caused some strain on the building’s foundation and electrical systems."
Pretlow's complaints come amid the filing of multiple lawsuits, both by homeowners and between the developer, Millennium Partners, and the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, at which the developer has pointed the finger for causing the building's excess settlement, i.e. sinking over 16 inches, after the "dewatering" process that occurred at the next-door Transbay Terminal project.
