Corporate photography in downtown Kansas City
The towers on Main, the Power and Light District, the Crossroads lofts and Crown Center. Four different rooms to photograph in, one standard across them. We work on site in whichever one your team sits in.
Downtown Kansas City sits inside the freeway loop formed by I-670, I-70 and I-35, and the office core runs up Main, Walnut and Grand inside it. The Class A buildings are One Kansas City Place at 1200 Main, City Center Square, Town Pavilion at 1111 Main and 1201 Walnut, with the Art Deco Kansas City Power and Light Building among them, four hundred eighty one feet, finished in 1931 and the tallest thing in the city for more than fifty years afterward. UMB Financial keeps its headquarters at 1010 Grand and Commerce Bancshares at 1000 Walnut. A few blocks south the Power and Light District, an $850 million Cordish development running roughly from Twelfth to Fourteenth at Grand and Main, wraps the H&R Block world headquarters at One H&R Block Way. Below the loop the Crossroads holds the agencies and the design firms, and Grand Boulevard carries on south to Crown Center and Hallmark.
The building stock changes character in about ten blocks and it changes the photograph with it. The financial district gives glass towers with high floors and long views, and lobbies that were built to be looked at. Power and Light is newer construction around an entertainment district, so the exterior options there are busiest in the evening and quiet at nine in the morning. The Crossroads is brick and timber warehouse conversion with big windows, and it is where the agencies and the architects are, and the Western Auto Building sign is the backdrop everyone recognizes from a block away. Crown Center is a complex begun in 1971 that reads as its own campus rather than as a street address, and Hallmark's international headquarters sits inside it at 2450 Grand. Knowing which of these your building is settles most of the questions before the day starts.
Where Downtown Kansas City works
Almost every session happens on site, in your own building. Knowing the room before I arrive is part of what keeps the day on schedule.
Main Street and the financial district
The Class A core inside the Downtown Loop: One Kansas City Place at 1200 Main, City Center Square, 1111 Main and 1201 Walnut, with a sky bridge over Walnut joining the last two. High floors, long views and the tightest building security downtown, which means names go to the desk in advance.
The Power and Light District
Cordish's $850 million district between roughly Twelfth and Fourteenth at Grand and Main, with the H&R Block world headquarters at One H&R Block Way on its edge. Nineteen stories and 525,000 square feet, opened in October 2006, designed by 360 Architecture and built by JE Dunn.
The Crossroads Arts District
South of the loop and the creative half of downtown. BarkleyOKRP runs a top ten independent American agency from the historic TWA building, with EAG Advertising and Marketing, Crawford Architects, el dorado inc and Helix Architecture and Design nearby, and HOK at 300 West Twenty Second Street. Brick, timber and daylight, and the Western Auto sign overhead.
Crown Center and Grand Boulevard
Hallmark's international headquarters at 2450 Grand, inside a complex begun in 1971, with Shook Hardy & Bacon's headquarters two doors down at 2555 Grand. A self contained campus with its own circulation, so the walk from the car to the floor is worth planning.
Baltimore Avenue
The design spine. Populous runs its global headquarters at 1400 Baltimore and BNIM sits at 1735 Baltimore. Firms whose own work is photographed for a living, which raises the bar on what a portrait of their people has to look like.
Memorial Drive and the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City occupies a fourteen story tower by Pei Cobb Freed at 1 Memorial Drive, dedicated in June 2008. Institutional security, interior work, and a building that has to be cleared well before the day.
What Downtown Kansas City is built on
The sectors that define this market, and what each one usually needs.
Engineering and architecture
HNTB is moving its national headquarters from 715 Kirk Drive into 1111 Main, Populous runs its global headquarters at 1400 Baltimore, BNIM is at 1735 Baltimore, and HOK, Crawford Architects, el dorado inc and Helix Architecture and Design work out of the Crossroads.
Staff directories that stay consistent as firms grow, plus project and site photography a proposal can carry.
Law
Shook Hardy & Bacon is headquartered at 2555 Grand near Crown Center, Stinson sits at 1201 Walnut, and Bryan Cave is in One Kansas City Place at 1200 Main.
Attorney bios matched across offices and practice groups, and a standard the next lateral hire drops into without a reshoot.
Financial services
UMB Financial is headquartered at 1010 Grand and Commerce Bancshares at 1000 Walnut, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City occupies 1 Memorial Drive, and Bank of America, Bank Midwest, the FDIC and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners are in the Main Street towers.
Executive portraits with the weight the business expects, and large advisor and banker programs refreshed on a cycle.
Advertising and design in the Crossroads
BarkleyOKRP is a top ten independent agency in the United States and runs its headquarters from the historic TWA building, with EAG Advertising and Marketing in the same district.
The work most like ours: brand films, campaign video and library photography made to a brief and to somebody else's deadline.
Headquarters: Hallmark and H&R Block
Hallmark's international headquarters is at 2450 Grand inside Crown Center, and H&R Block's world headquarters is at One H&R Block Way in the Power and Light District, nineteen stories and 525,000 square feet with around fifteen hundred employees.
Leadership portraits, culture and facility film, and library work a marketing team can draw on for a year.
What we make in Downtown Kansas City
Headshot programs are usually the first project. They are rarely the only one.
Corporate headshot programs
Whole teams photographed on site in one or two days, to one standard.
Learn MoreExecutive portraits
Leadership portraits with the weight a headquarters expects.
Learn MoreBrand films and campaign video
Directed, filmed and edited by one person, from scope to delivery.
Learn MoreLaboratory and facility imagery
Technical environments photographed by someone who asks how it works first.
Learn MoreRecruiting and culture video
Made on site, for roles that are hard to fill.
Learn MoreConference and event coverage
Sessions, keynotes and headshot booths at corporate events.
Learn MoreWhy it matters in Downtown Kansas City
The state line divides this metro's economy more evenly than it divides any comparable American city, and downtown is the Missouri half of that split. The KCMO earnings tax, one percent on residents and on non residents who work inside the city limits, is one of several reasons a company here ends up with a downtown office and a Johnson County office instead of a single address. When that happens the people page usually carries two sets of headshots made years apart by two photographers, and it shows. Photographing both sides on consecutive days with one setup is how that gets repaired, and in this metro it is a normal booking.
Buildings we work in around Downtown Kansas City
Each has its own page: what the building is, who is there, and what a session in it involves.
One Kansas City Place
1200 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Forty two stories at 1200 Main, the tallest building in Kansas City and the tallest habitable building in Missouri. If your floor is in it, this is how a session here runs.
1111 Main (Town Pavilion)
1111 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
Thirty eight stories at the northeast corner of Twelfth and Main, rebranded from Town Pavilion, with a sky bridge over Walnut to 1201 Walnut. If your floor is in it, this is how a session here runs.
Buildings and districts we work in around Downtown Kansas City
On site at your own office, wherever that is.
What every session includes
The same standard in every city, because it is the same photographer in every city.
Direction people relax into
Most people dread being photographed. I demonstrate, they mirror, and the guarded expression is gone in about thirty seconds.
Real-time review
Every frame appears on a tethered monitor as we shoot, so nobody leaves the room wondering how it went.
One consistent standard
The same lighting and framing used in every other city you operate in, so the team page holds together.
Professional retouching
Every final image is edited personally. You look like yourself, on a good day.
Photography and video in one visit
Filmed in 4K, which means a production day hands back a still library as well as the film.
On site at your office
The full setup travels. A conference room or an open corner is enough, and your team never leaves the building.
Kansas City is a market we work often. The advisory team at Merrill Lynch was photographed on site here, individually and as a composite group portrait.
Work photographed in Kansas City
The Merrill Lynch team here was photographed on site
Most of the Kansas City photography on this site is one program: the Merrill Lynch team, photographed at their offices rather than flown to a studio. Individual portraits and a group composite came out of the same visit, which is the usual shape of an on-site day.
A group composite matters more than it sounds. It means the team picture survives a hire or a departure without putting everyone back in front of a camera, and it is the reason these programs tend to hold their look for years instead of months.
Trusted by leading organizations
Downtown Kansas City questions
What teams in this market usually ask first.
How do you handle security and loading in a downtown tower?▼
Can you photograph downtown and the Kansas side in one program?▼
Have you worked in Kansas City before?▼
Our office is a Crossroads loft rather than a tower floor. Does that change the session?▼
Can you film as well as photograph on the same visit?▼
Also working across Kansas City
Planning something in Downtown Kansas City?
Tell me the headcount, the buildings and the dates. A proposal follows a short conversation, and questions are answered within one business day.