The developers behind the sinking Millennium Tower paid for an independent review of the tower itself before it was built, but not of the site it sits on, according to new testimony at City Hall on Thursday.

The Government Audit and Oversight Committee quizzed Jack Moehle, a professor of structural engineering at UC Berkeley, whom Millennium Partners and its engineer consultants hired to conduct an independent peer review of the building design while it was being entitled.

“The interest was to do an internal review to ensure that the structural system selected was suitable,” Moehle told city lawmakers at Thursday’s hearing. “[So] that if there was a formal peer review for the city later that most questions would be dealt with already.”

Moehle says he inspected the high-rise’s design from top to bottom—but no lower than the bottom. A geotechnical review—i.e., an assessment of the condition of the soil under the building site—wasn’t part of the process, because no one ever hired a geotechnical engineer.

[Update: Note that Moehle’s testimony referred only to the lack of a geotech engineer on the voluntary review conducted by the developer ahead of time.]

“My interests went as far as the concrete mat,” says Moehle, referring to the slab that forms the base of the building.

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