CITY IMPROVEMENTS. AN UP-TO-DATE STUDIO.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 151, 23 December 1897, Page 6

CITY IMPROVEMENTS. AN UP-TO-DATE STUDIO.

The army of handsome new buildings which from its base on the reclaimed laud is advancing slowly upon this originally wooden-walled city, is making its position good in Cuba-street. At the corner of Taranaki-place and Cuba-street Mr. C. P. Pynsent has erected a fine three-story pile of buildings, the lower piers of which are Timaru Milestone, handsomely worked, while the rest of the structure is of brick and plaster, decorated in the style of the Renaissance. Mr. G. G. Schwartz, the architect, has made a creditable addition to the city. The chief occupant of the block is Mrs. Hermann, the well-kuown photographer, who has what is without doubt the most up-to-date and complete studio in the colonies. On entering the building, the visitor finds himself in a large hall and show - room, paved with mosaic tiles, and fitted with an elaborately decorated counter. At preseut the room is empty, but the large windows will no doubt soon set off to their best advantage this firm's fine portraits. An easy flight of stairs leads to the waiting-room — a cosy, nicely-furnished place. Close by there are lavatories and two dressing-rooms, where one may put that last nervous touch to hair ox tie before undergoing the ordeal of posing before the camera, and a few steps further on is the studio. As one enters one is almost dazzled by the amount of light that floods the large room. Indeed, the light is so brilliant that were it not shaded off by curtains it would be too strong for portrait work. As it is, a noticeable increase in the celerity with which photographs can be taken will commend itself to sitteri who are uncomfortable when being " taken." The studio is 30ft x 18ft, awl has all its appointments of tut most up-to-date character, including some very large backgrounds, that are both beautiful and novel. Off the studio is a small dark room, for the changing of plates. On the same floor are the finishing, enamelling, retouching,/and negative rooms, each with its special appliances. On the floor above are more rooms devoted to the mj-steries of photography—the working dark-room, with its large rosy window; the enlarging-room, with its huge developing tanks, capable of developing full-length life-size enlargements , the toning-room, the store-room, and the printing-room, flooded with light from windows opening on the roof. On this floor, too, are lavatories for the female employe's. The whole arrangements combine to form one of the most complete of phdtographic businesses in the colony. Electric light is installed throughout, and the rooms are ampiy ventilated. In addition to Mrs. Hermann's photographic business, the building has room for five shops. Each shop has a Iront entrance, and all except one is also reached from a passage at the back. One of the Taranakiplace shops is occupied by the Hible, Book, and Tract Depot, while the other is at present vacant. In Cuba-street one shop iti to be occupied as an office by the Te Aro Loan Co. Another fine shop, 45ft in depth, lias at present' no tenant, while the third, 55ft long, with a spacious show-room above, is temporarily occupied as a branch of Te Aro House. All the shops have electric lights, lavatory conveniences, and the most ample ventilation and lighting. The contractor was Mr. John Hunter, under whom Messrs. Cederholm & Tolley undertook the electric light installation, Mr. Lark saw to the stonework, Messrs. J. Alexander & Co. put in the plumbing, and Messrs. Parker & Mann did the painting.