Faulty Foundation—The Leaning Tower of San Francisco

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Who would have thought that drilling for pilings adjacent the sinking sides would accelerate the sink?

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I thought that SF was the epicenter of “follow the science”. Maybe I missed it that “science” is now an alias for media.

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Building Integrity channel offers a take and promises a detailed analysis in a series of future videos:

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Building Integrity channel second episode:

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I have become painfully convinced over the years that Mother Nature is tricksy and false. Natural environments are difficult to model and quantify. My Koi pond sank into the hard blue clay subsoil in my backyard more than I guessed it would, about 6 inches. It caused me to repair and modify plumbing and adjacent plantings. Maybe that sinking had something to do with supporting 45 tons of basalt and 5,000 gallons of water (=40,000lbs), all in a rainy locale. Good news is that it’s stabilized now, after about 12 years since we enlarged it so much. Used to be about 600 gallons and maybe 5 tons of rock.

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Building Integrity channel third episode:

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More from Building Integrity:

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I watched the whole series he put out. The real scandal is that the Old Bay Clay under the original friction pilings can’t carry the load, and never could. Computable without resort to FEA or other modern tech.

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I think the architect of The Learning Tower of San Francisco deserves Reparations from Mother Nature.

Let’s go shake her down.

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NYC pencil tower:

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Idiocracy. Look for more of these going forward.

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Injury, meet insult.

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