Downtown

Location

Oct 14

Downtown St. Louis is the perfect location for urban senior pictures. There’s a variety of locations and looks you can achieve when you go downtown. With locations like City Garden, Laclede’s Landing, the Arch, Kiener Plaza, the Old Courthouse, down by the riverfront, Ballpark Village, and outside Enterprise Center you’re sure to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Check out my list of the top senior picture locations in St. Louis, MO to get inspired by more locations to have your senior pictures taken.

The Best Part About Downtown

When you head to Downtown St. Louis for your senior pictures you will find endless opportunities for locations. The Arch is a great location to show off your St. Louis roots by getting the Arch in the background, sitting lakeside in the grass, hanging out in the trees, sitting on the steps leading up to the Arch, or even walking down the pathway to get the Arch in your background.

You can head down to the riverfront for some unique pictures of you with the Mississippi River behind you while you stand or sit on the old, brick parking lot. You can even get some bridges in the background or the Arch depending on where you stand.

Laclede’s Landing is not far from here and is the perfect location for older brick buildings, brick roadways, and for portraits under the Eads Bridges archways. This historic part of Downtown St. Louis is sure to give you the urban vibe you’re looking for without searching for an abandoned warehouse.

Across from the Arch is the Old Courthouse. Having steps to sit on, tall pillars to lean against or peek around, another angle to get the Arch in your background, fences to lean on, and large doorways to stand in, you’ll have a variety of posing opportunities here. You can even stand across the street for the perfect background of not only the courthouse, but other buildings downtown as well.

Just up the street a short way is Kiener Plaza. This is the perfect location to get both the Old Courthouse and the Arch in your background. You can sit on the fountain or stand in the plaza for this unique portrait. About two blocks over is City Garden, which is the perfect location if you’re looking for a little bit more greenery in some of your senior pictures and not just urban backgrounds. It’s full of unique sculptures, and even has a small, man-made waterfall. There are flowers and shrubbery that grow all around the perimeter of the park to give you a little bit more greenery and less buildings for a few portraits.

If you’re either a Cardinals or Blues fan, you may be wanting a few outside of either stadium. Ballpark Village is the perfect location for any Cardinals baseball lover. You can walk down the sidewalk for a few portraits with signs like “Cardinals Nation” in the background, or even capture a few with Busch Stadium. There’s also seating arrangements and turf to sit on and mix up the environment a little bit. Ballpark Village also offers a large STL statue that is perfect for anyone who wants to represent the city they love and are from. Enterprise Center works great for Blues Hockey fans if they want a few around the perimeter of the building, or even a couple with the statues of their favorite past players. You can even have some portraits with the large, player banners in the background to remember your favorite player.

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What to Expect Each Season

Spring

Certain parts of downtown will have flowers blooming and others won’t. It depends how urban or garden a certain area is. If you’re looking for blooming flowers, you’ll want to be sure to incorporate City Garden into your session, because it has more greenery. Other areas will most likely only have potted plants due to the lack of greenspace.

Summer

All the grass, trees, and plants around the area will fully have color again, so you can choose any location downtown without worrying about certain areas not having much color. Places like the Arch or Old Courthouse may be busier at this time of year due to tourist visiting. You can easily work around them by going to lesser visited sections of those locations though, which will in turn give you unique portraits that others may not have.

Fall

It may not seem like it, but there are plenty of trees growing around Downtown St. Louis that you’re bound to find some changing during fall. The best places will be in parks like City Garden, and even places like the Arch that have wide open spaces with trees growing. You’ll find a few trees growing up and down the sidewalks that will also give you perfect fall colors.

Winter

With St. Louis being full of buildings, you can easily work around barren trees and plants during the winter. It also helps that the buildings are tall, so you won’t have to worry about tall trees in the background that are brown. You can also head out there after a good snow to change up the scenery a little bit and take unique portraits that most others don’t ever think about.

Pricing and Accommodations

Downtown St. Louis has parking fees in place just about everywhere. Prices vary depending on where you park. Make sure you feed the meter the appropriate amount of money for your session time, plus a little extra to be on the safe side.

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Address

Citygarden: 801 Market St, St. Louis, MO 63101
Laclede’s Landing: 801 N 1st St, St. Louis, MO 63102
Gateway Arch: Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO 63102
Kiener Plaza: 500 Chestnut St, St. Louis, MO 63101St. Louis, MO 63102
Old Courthouse: 11 N 4th St, St. Louis, MO 63102
Riverfront: 50 S Leonor K Sullivan Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63102
Ballpark Village: 601 Clark Ave, St. Louis, MO 63102
Enterprise Center: 1401 Clark Ave, St. Louis, MO 63103