The NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has learned, three of the high-rise buildings where windows failed this week were among 200 newer structures with a 30-year exemption from the city’s façade inspection rules.
Both Salesforce East at 350 Mission Street, and a 15-story building at 1400 Mission Street had windows fail during Tuesday’s windstorm. Salesforce East was completed in 2015 and 1400 Mission in 2016 – that means, under city regulations, both qualified for a 30-year inspection exemption automatically granted to buildings with permit applications dating back to 1998.
The exemption means those newer buildings do not need to perform “initial” façade inspections for decades. The deadline for an