A last flowering of beauty.

Before America embarked on yet another of its unending wars in support of the military industrial complex (though in fairness to the Land of the Free, while this may have been the last hot war they won the cause was not oil but freedom) the movement known as Art Deco came to its final fruition in the variant most often referred to as Moderne.

Any fan of late ’30s movies, especially musicals, will get an eyeful of Art Deco with its sensual curves and light touch. Moderne took this to a new high, incorporating nautical themes and yet cleaner lines. Few buildings illustrate the style better than the Portside building on the Embarcadero in east San Francisco.

The Portside Building at 38 Bryant Street, San Francisco. G1, kit lens @ 31mm 1/4000, f/5,4, ISO 320.

Portside overlooks the east bay and sees morning fog as often as not. For reasons which quite defeat me it is placed immediately under the Oakland Bay Bridge, and while the latter discloses far less of the Art Deco beauty abundantly on show in the Golden Gate on the other side of town, the period is the same. Portside was actually completed in the 1990s and is a recreation of the original Moderne style, seldom seen in San Francisco. Nothing wrong with recreation – you can bet the windows fit, there is modern air conditioning and the interior is silent as the grave according to HKS, the architects responsible. Still, I’m not sure I would want to blow a seven figure sum on a condo here knowing that the bridge above awaits temptation in the guise of the next major earthquake. ‘Penthouse, open sky view’ rather loses its appeal.

Penthouse view of the Oakland Bay Bridge. G1, kit lens @ 16mm, 1/320, f/7.1, ISO 320.