![\"millennium](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/millennium-tower-4.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Vanguard Properties<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nTimes have certainly changed since a\u00a0few months ago, when we were telling you how you could\u00a0<\/span>buy the highest penthouse in the Millennium Tower\u00a0for under $9 million<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n Now, San Francisco’s tallest residential building is at center stage for a much different\u00a0reason: it’s\u00a0sinking and shifting<\/span><\/a>. It’s been<\/span><\/span>\u00a0widely reported that the 58-story structure has sunk 16 inches since being completed in 2008, much more than the lifetime expectation of 6 inches; it’s also\u00a0tilted\u00a02 inches to the northwest.<\/p>\n The Millennium Tower is thought to hold the most luxurious condos in San Francisco, and perhaps even in all of California, and current homeowners are unsurprisingly not happy it’s\u00a0having problems. They are threatening to sue, and as\u00a0the building has already raked in $750 million in property sales, a devastatingly expensive legal battle could be in the works.<\/p>\n At least some experts think legal action would be justified. As\u00a0Professor Greg Deierlein, director of the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford University, told the <\/span>San Francisco Chronicle<\/span><\/a>, \u201cI would be concerned for my investment.\u201d While he doesn\u2019t see the building’s movement as a safety risk, it could lead to elevators malfunctioning or walls cracking.<\/span><\/p>\n Some have blamed the\u00a0building’s issues on the fact that it was anchored in dense sand, not bedrock, but developer Millennium Partners has said that was “the preferred design.” The company\u00a0has instead put the\u00a0Transbay Joint Powers Authority on the hook for the tower’s problems, with spokesperson P.J. Johnston telling\u00a0the Chronicle that the building had settled “within a normal range” until excavation started on a nearby bus and rail center.<\/p>\n<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Vanguard Properties<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Vanguard Properties<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Vanguard Properties<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n