The new aquarium at Union Station has been open for two months–and was sold out every single one of its first six weekends. Upon entering the space, it seems like at least half of the people selling out those tickets must be small children and their caregivers–and it’s clear why. The space is downright magical, with high-tech simulated sparkly whale and penguin images swimming over the walls of the atrium as you enter, while other (real) fish swim around a submerged clock face in an homage to Union Station’s history as, well, a train station.
The acknowledgement of Union Station’s roots continues in the introduction video, in which patrons view the evolution of St. Louis out the windows of a stationary ‘train car’ which occasionally goes bump to simulate movement. The ‘train’ takes you out of Union Station as it once was in 1894, then down into the depths of the Mississippi, and finally on a flight over St. Louis as it is now.
The St. Louis Aquarium opened on 125th anniversary of Union Station. The attraction was part of a nearly $190M redevelopment of the site and includes an experience that stretches 120,000 square feet.
“When the train dives into the water…I just think it’s a brilliant transition from the celebration of [Union Station’s] history to, now you’re ready for your aquarium visit,” said Tami Brown, executive director of the aquarium–though she also noted that connecting the concept of a train station to that of an aquarium was visually and artistically “a hard goal to achieve.”
After the introductory video, patrons emerge into the aquarium itself, where they are immediately greeted by a display of fish that live in our rivers here. Here, you can examine local river creatures in all their strangeness, without the cloudy waters of the river getting in the way of the catfish’s whiskers and the long-nosed gar’s spear-like snout. Then, you might move through to see sharks being fed, touch stingrays in the touch pool, watch otters play, or have an audience with “Lord Stanley” (the one in two million blue lobster that the aquarium received as a gift in commemoration of the St. Louis Blues’ Stanley Cup win).
The cost of admission to the aquarium is steep, particularly compared to the many cultural institutions in St. Louis which offer free admission: to get a coveted aquarium ticket, you’ll have to fork over $25 per adult and $18 per child. That’s what the aquarium’s school group scholarship program, sponsored by their nonprofit arm (the Union Station Aquarium Foundation) began offsetting in March.
H2O Friends, short for the Help To Our Friends program, provides groups from Title I schools (along with other groups able to demonstrate financial need) with free admission for all students attending and one chaperone for every ten students. For school groups unable to afford transportation, the program is also able to offer a transportation stipend of up to $400, according to the H2O Friends website. Field trips generally include both a trip to the aquarium and an “aquatic-themed, STEM-based” class run by aquarium volunteers. These classes are geared towards the students’ specific grade levels–for sixth through eighth graders, Brown said, “We’re talking about some conservation issues, some land geography adaptation, and the concept of watersheds,” for example.
When the H2O Friends grant, some student groups will have greater access to the aquarium. “If we have a school that wants to visit, but it’s outside their price range, we can offer them money to help them visit, so that all pieces of the community have a chance to,” Brown said. For the rest of St. Louis, however, the best option — for now — is to scrape together the $25 for entry and reserve tickets online in advance. With the ongoing busyness of the aquarium, Brown said, this is the only way that “You’re guaranteed to get in at the day and time you choose.”
Schools and student groups can apply for field trip funding at https://www.stlaquariumfoundation.org/education/h2o-friends/.
