A nightmare for New York, will this ever get fixed?

That $6 million is looking cheep now.

“Caissons to bedrock”. Three words that would have saved the building. I learned those three words 50 years ago in architecture school. Damn.

Those ultra-thin skyscrapers freak me out.

The additional $6 million to properly prepare the foundation when spread across the cost of units in that building would probably not have affected the occupancy rate. It's an example of pure greed on the part of the developer and it looks good on them that their gamble failed.

I have discovered that most engineering disasters are caused by some manager going "we could save a bit of money by...." They don't realise that good engineers have already designed the structure to be as cheap as possible, but still meet all of the engineering requirements. Usually the management's cost cutting comes straight out of the structures safety margin.

"A scenic esplanade bustling with walkers and cyclists" Shows elevated highway

Greed Before Safety.

All the high tech computer designs and engineering, but the ones built in the 30s with guys throwing hot rivets are still standing strong.

As an architect I would have gotten fired from this job in the design phase because I would have insisted that the foundation be set in bedrock. I hate cheap clients trying to save a buck instead of doing it the correct way in the first place. Also, these super thin towers defy logic, the structure required to keep them standing is unreal.

should have spent the $6mil on the foundations to bedrock. DOH!!!

They took the risk for the 6 million additional return. Now the risk is being realized.

greed takes a SMACK here

This problem reminds me of a similar problem with the Millenium Tower in downtown San Francisco.

In the building next door 181 Maiden Lane most of the piles are driven to “the “point of refusal” with large pile caps. It has not tilted at all in 43 years.

180 Maiden built 40+ years ago never has any of these foundation problems ... because back then, we knew how to build.

Yup, they screwed up. Saw the cost, went cheap. The cost wasn't even that much 166 feet is done all the time.

U Mass Amherst built a 26 story library with brick facade. They didn't estimate the weight of the books correctly. When they started to fill it, bricks under compression started blowing off the sides... Their fix was to wrap the entire building in fence 30' away from the building and make one entrance under a covered roof while only using half the floors. There are entire floors with no access and no books. Other floors are empty except cubicles for people to study. On the same campus the residential buildings known as, "the towers" were built in swamp land and have continued to sink since they opened. Over the years they have had to remove and lower the stairs at the entrances to accommodate the new depth of the buildings

finally someone admitting that 3 inches is a lot

Thus being the Big Apple, the obvious questions are: Which NY City politicians reaped contributions/favors from the developer? Which NY City building inspectors received favors/jobs from the developer? Which consulting firms received contracts/favors from the developer?

Excuse me, but no building of just 60 stories, only 670 feet tall, can even come anywhere near "dominating New York City's downtown skyline." It ranks 87th. That's like saying some player who's 6'3" dominates the boards in the NBA.

considering that the foundation caisons to bedrock was only 6 million, and units sold for over a million... it should have been a no brainer to go for the sure bet and not risk your massive investment.

I rather have a 100 plus acres of land in the country with a modest log cabin any day instead of living there.

3 inches is nothing, Mllennium tower in San Francisco Lean 29 inches on one corner of the building

It is leaning towards the Millennium Tower obviously.

Good video. There's nothing more expensive than cutting costs. Time in and time out people still make that mistake.

3 inches ain't so bad... It's All in how you use it!

Everybody knows pilings need to go down to bedrock if you build a tower on land created by fill. The owners and engineers on the job were incompetent, crooks, or both. New York had better arrange to remove the structure and do it soon.

It's a shame. I think the building design is stunning. A great looking heap.

Neglected and abandoned building: squatters, what are you waiting for?

Even the Bible talks about building your house on sand instead of rock.😂

I actually find comfort in the fact that 3 inches is cause for concern with construction on a building that tall. Sounds like they are on it, unlike another building i know..

Some people won't consider expensive precautions until they are screwed by the shortcuts. Things like this need to happen sometimes in order for others to not be as reckless in similar situations

No Thank you.. I wouldn’t go there even to visit

It may be pricy drilling into bedrock 132 - 166 feet down, but they would have made their money already. They lost hundreds of millions to saved 6 million dollars with that stupid concrete pad idiocy.

The fact that the rather severe issues -- and the causes of those issues -- with the Millennium Tower in San Francisco are very well known makes this here seem even crazier. You'd think someone would say, "We're definitely going to do this the right way and drive piles all the way down to bedrock to avoid something like that from happening here in Manhattan," but apparently not.

A few years ago a large waterfront convention centre project here in Vancouver was publicly noted as behind schedule in the press, and I happened to remark to a family friend who was an accountant with the crown corporation that was building it, "so, what- they couldn't find bedrock?" And he replied, "how did you know that?"

It seems with these tall, thin towers that going the extra mile with foundation prep would be a no brainer

Fact is, this is among the hideous buildings to curse New York’s contemporary skyline. It might fit perfectly well in Miami or even the Upper East Side, but among the array of downtown’s office towers and the Seaport, it’s a blight. It’s gratifying to see the developers take a bath on this one.

I think this is a perfect opportunity for aluminum siding.

One line from the Wikipedia article stands out: The developer “hired the Italian firm Pizzarotti as general contractor, likely in part because of Pizzarotti's low rates.” The Esplanade gang has entered the chat.

Because all new condos built after 2015 cut corners like crazy and use very cheap materials. It's a no-brainer.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="24">0:24</a> If the tower was visibly tilting (to someone's perspective with just their bare eyes), the tower would have collapsed a long time ago. The Millennium Tower in SF has a far more concerning tilt, yet it is not possible to see the tilt with just your eyes.

All these supertall, super thin residential buildings are nightmares. Just because you CAN build something doesn't mean you SHOULD build something.

Thank you for the great video

The Bush & Cheny Demolition Company could easily fix it. 😅

The Millenium Towner in San Francisco is leaning 10 times as much as it's full of residents. Why is 3 inchs that bad? Do they expect it to continue?

One Seaport in NY = Millenium Tower in San Francisco. Tilting Catastrophes. They should make a whole episode on Engineering Disasters with these two buildings.

Who would have thought that geology wins EVERY time

Can they attach it to the big building next to it to help hold it straight?

It would have only added $6 million to the total to have a sturdy foundation? Sounds like they could have afforded to do that.

When you teach your kids about building a good foundation ( start) to every project in life 🤣

“Landfill” is the great metaphor for western society.

Millenium Tower anyone?

3" is not too much of lining. Edit second like in case of Millenium tower of SF after battle all are generals. Structural engineering is not an exact science. You do the best what you can. They tried something new and it didn't work.

I can't imagine yesterday's earthquake helping the situation of this building. This is what happens when you put upfront cost over long-term understanding of do it right means you do it once. Whatever cost measures to fix the tilt, prevent further tilting, legal fee's and inability to fulfill residence will all be multiple times higher then $7 million to build to bedrock.

I know nothing about architecture or building but it just seems that cutting corners on the FOUNDATION is really not the way to save expense. I'm shocked that any developer would consider it with a building of that size.

I bet you CDI (Controlled Demolition Inc.) could fix it quick!

NY needs housing for the immigrants. What better than a river view?

amazing in this day and age that stuff like this happens, i’m sure there are plenty of people right here on youtube that saw this scenario unfolding

I remember when they proposed this building.. I thought they are out of their minds due to the underground

They can't fix New York, so what's one lousy skyscraper...?

The bible verse about building your house on sand comes to mind. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.....the difference between wisdom and knowledge.

The fact they call this lean 'unforeseen' after knowing they weren't anchoring to bedrock is astounding to me. Anyone who has dealt with foundation issues in their home (myself included) or even built small structures (shed, outbuildings, etc) on soft ground would have predicted this as a potential outcome.

Three inch lean may not be that bad. The Millennium Tower in SF. Has 14 in lean and it got slightly worse after the attempted fix

Doesn’t matter, nobody is gonna wanna live in New York City in the next year or two. Mad Max.

From New York leaning tower to San Francisco leaning towers, If I ever build a skyscraper I will insist it be down to bedrock

This issue is the definition of trying to pick up penny’s in front of a steam roller. They tried to save $6m and ended up costing themselves hundreds of millions. Pure greed and stupidity. You’re building a LUXURY tower. Just imagine the other corners they were cutting. I don’t even mean structural/engineering corners, I mean just on the quality of amenity material they were using. I’ve seen a lot of luxury buildings in NYC in my time and their quality has consistently gone down with each decade. It’s the small things, like seams not lining up, grout and sealant cracking, poor building maintenance infrastructure, things like that. But when you’re buying luxury property it’s those little things that matter.

different story in the wikipedia article about this building, "The developer hired engineering firms WSP Global and Arup Group, which both concluded that the building's lean did not compromise its structural integrity." etc.

I’d rather live in Brooklyn or Queens for a 10th of the price with a view of the city skyline over paying millions to live in city with a view of Brooklyn, Queens, SI or Jersey.

4 words -- Drill down to bedrock

Corruption. So many regulations and all that, if you live in New York you know everything is regulated. No one ever would give a permit to build something like that without checking on the foundations. Is so obvious developers just gave a huge chunk of money to the city to get the permits.

As an automotive tech. I'll tell you. Engineers think and act like they're the smartest people around who make no mistakes in their design. Until as a tech i point out how they lack common sense. This building for example, we accounted for the twist, we didn't account for weight distribution. Something related to me, when this condition occurs by the customers complaint, replace this part. Me, how do you duplicate? Them, you can't but it a known issue for a year. Also me, spends 20 min on vehicle, figures out how to force duplication of complaint. Them, how? Me, by active test of this part, it is closest to this series of parts, use and build up clogs the first of the series of ports in the failed part you said to replace. Service bulletin two days later.

3 inch lean on a 700+ ft tall building is not that severed. There are many buildings with a slight lean. In fact on a very windy day most very tall buildings will sway that much naturally. The real problem is the rate of leaning. If it’s 3” and that is it then that is not bad, but if it’s still leaning then that is a much bigger problem.

I never even knew there was a workaround building skyscrapers on bedrock. I'm surprised more greedy developers haven't tried to do this in other parts of Manhattan. I'm not an engineer or architect but common sense tells you some silty former trash heap isn't a good foundation for a tall skinny building.

Fascinating. (Writing and production are excellent.)

“They moved the headstones but they never moved the bodies! THEY NEVER MOVED THE BODIES!!!”

The money now being spent on repairs, adjustments and legal fee's will easily exceed what it would have cost to go to bed rock. This building by its slender design needed to go to bed rock but instead was entrusted to some sort of "floating" foundation. If you need an example of poor judgement this is it.

Kind of like Boeing......

This is exactly the same problem that happened in Frisco with the Millennium Tower but it has 58 stories and a 28 inch lean measured from the top. An attempt to fix the lean actually accelerated the leaning rate and amount and it has been halted.

I guess the builders forgot about the leaning tower of pizza

The thing that caught my eye was the tagging at the top of the building <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="541">9:01</a>. I’m here in Chicago and sometimes you just catch tagging some where and wonder how in the hell did they get up there. Definitely looks like they must have repelled down this building at night and went back to skyscraper window cleaning the next morning.

Typical U.S. profit at all costs. Imagine how much more the developers are going to lose in legal fees compared to creating a secure foundation.

I find myself most impressed by whomever repelled down and painted the graffiti on the top 8 floors shown at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="543">9:03</a>.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="20">0:20</a> The other tower in the picture is also 'not standing straight and leaning', so it needs to be fixed or demolished as well.

Keep in mind also the city of New York had to approve the engineering of this building for the permitting. They are partially responsible as well. They should've never taken this risk and made the developer pay for the proper engineering.

Millennium tower has a competitor now

Take the developer to the cleaners over this, sue the shareholders personally for the demolition

Thanks!👍

Good American engineers! Just words and show off. Like moon landing also.

Not the first developer that tries to save money by not going down to bedrock with piles and runs into trouble!

The city should be. Responsible for approving the blueprints and the designs.

The only thing that makes buildings in New York not frightening to be in is the fact that you know it's literally drilled into the Bedrock.. the actual hard, solid granite crust of the Earth which is exceptionally strong and stable in New York.. the stability of the ground is part of what makes New York city so special.. ( that and the fact that you can drink water out of your faucet anywhere in New York City with total confidence. New York City's water wins taste test over bottled)

I’m just a small builder, but how many times in the past have I said “ Never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over again,

Now folks, which is the correct scenario, the One Seaport's Developer used Boeing as their design Consultants, or Boeing used One Seaport's Developers for it's 737 Max programme?

The original WTC, the new WTC, the World Financial Center and every building in Battery Park City are built on landfill. None of them are leaning or sinking due to unstable soil. The developers for all of those buildings had the correct foundations engineered and built. The disaster at 161 Maiden is happening because the developers tried to build a foundation that was much less expensive and inferior.

The lean can simply be managed through balancing on the opposite side that sways the structure

Curiously there is no mention of a thorough geologic survey to assess the suitability of building a high-rise tower on anything less than bedrock. From the information provided in this short documentary, it seems obvious the engineers were cutting corners to control cost. The fact that the building began to settle unevenly before it was completed is telling. The design specifications were clearly deeply flawed. I'm a geologist and this is what happens when a building is poorly designed and under engineered. I've read the book about the construction of the Brooklyn bridge written by Stephen Ambrose. That structure which crosses the east river stands as a testament to robust engineering accomplished well before scale models or computer modeling was even a pipe dream. It was the world's longest suspension bridge for twenty years.

GREED IS WHAT MADE IT TILT! 😂

They could have saved themselves 6 million headaches when they just embedded the foundation into the bedrock.