Broken glass fell from the Transamerica Pyramid and narrowly missed a group of people on the street outside the skyscraper Thursday night, according to a witness who said he just avoided injury.
More than 20 pieces of glass — the “size of business cards” — smashed as they hit the ground “like meteor strikes” around 6:45 p.m., according to Sean, a 25-year-old tech developer who declined to give his full name after witnessing the incident on the Washington Street side of the tower.
“These things were falling fast. It felt like they were coming from a higher floor,” said Sean, adding that the noise reminded him of icicles cracking in Canada, where he’s from.
“This was loud, really loud. I look up, and glass was literally falling from the top of the pyramid,” he told The Standard by phone Friday.
The tower has 48 floors; a pane of glass on the 35th floor broke while it was being cleaned, a Department of Building Inspection official said by email after an inspector visited the tower on Friday. DBI ordered the property owner to secure the opening and install new glass as soon as possible.
“A window pane at the Transamerica Pyramid was damaged during a routine cleaning last night,” a Transamerica spokesperson said Friday in an email. “We’re thankful that nobody was injured and to the team on-site who responded quickly.”
Two women and a man were seated outside the building’s entrance when the glass fell, Sean said.
“They were literally in the direct line where the glass was falling. … I heard them screaming. I ran back,” he said. “These were significant chunks.”
Sean said he called 911 and told receptionists in the Transamerica lobby what had happened.
“I was a little scared to exit the lobby, because I didn’t want to get hit,” he said.
The walkway along Washington Street was cordoned off with red tape Thursday evening, Sean said.
Developer Michael Shvo recently completed a $450 million renovation of the landmark property, which includes a new seating garden and refurbished lobby. On Sept. 12, an airplane flying over the tower trolled the reopening party, trailing a banner that read “Shvo must go: Lawsuits claim fraud.” The stunt was the latest installment in an ugly legal fight that continues to play out in the courts and headlines between Shvo and CORE: Holdings, the company behind an exclusive members club slated to be one of the Pyramid’s major tenants.
This is the second recent incident involving falling glass downtown. In early September, a pane of glass fell from the roof of the 30-story Salesforce East tower during replacement work.