City releases Tall Building Safety Strategy, urges stronger seismic and recovery plans

San Francisco’s Office of Resilience and Capital Planning and the Applied Technology Council presented a Tall Building Safety Strategy to the Planning Commission on Jan. 10, 2019, outlining an inventory of the city’s tallest buildings and 16 recommended actions to reduce earthquake risk and speed recovery.

The report, which the city contracted with the Applied Technology Council in February 2017, catalogs 156 buildings the team classified as “tall” (generally above 200 feet) and recommends steps ranging from stricter geotechnical and foundation review for new construction to post‑event recovery planning and an expanded Building Occupancy Resumption Program (BORP).

City resilience director Heather Green told commissioners the work was prompted both by recent attention to Millennium Tower and by the rapid pace of downtown change. “This report is timely, not only because of the headlines we all read about Millennium Tower, but also because of the rapid pace of change in San Francisco,” she said.

Applied Technology Council project manager Ayesha Hortaksha summarized the inventory and structural classifications the team developed, noting differences in foundation types, building ages and occupancy patterns. ATC engineer David Bonowitz highlighted six priority recommendations presented to the commission, and said the full report contains 16 proposals, including: codifying improved geotechnical investigation and foundation-design practices for new tall buildings; developing performance objectives that go beyond minimum code for post‑disaster recovery; studying the availability of earthquake insurance for tall building owners; and producing coordinated downtown recovery plans that limit the area that must be cordoned after a collapse or leaning building.

ATC recommended strengthening the city’s expectation that some tall structures carry recovery plans tailored to their complexity and neighborhood impacts, and urged city departments to rethink traditional cordon practices that could require blocking large swaths of downtown.

Public commenters urged broader stakeholder outreach. Longtime civic participant Sue Hester noted the large amounts of bay fill in eastern San Francisco and called for expanded participation from port and waterfront interests. Commissioner questions centered on how recovery planning would work in practice, how historic buildings would be treated, and whether the city has a sense of the current level of earthquake insurance coverage for tall buildings.

Staff said the report is the first phase: the city will begin further study extending to buildings 75 feet and taller and continue stakeholder engagement. The full technical report and supporting maps are posted by ORCP on the city’s resilience website.

The commission did not take action on the informational presentation; commissioners thanked the presenters and discussed next steps for departmental coordination and outreach.