One of the most involved building projects in company history was completed in December 2008 and opened to the public on January 31st of this year: the new Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. If you've been to the previous iteration of the museum (and thought, wow, this little showroom is it?) you'll appreciate that now over 80 cars are on display in the 60,250 square-foot Exhibition Area ranging from the world's first hybrid automobile, the wheel-hub motor Lohner-Porsche of 1900 all the way to the latest generation of the Porsche 911.
Architect Delugan Meissi beat 169 other architects in the contest to design the facility in 2005, and construction started six months later. True to the German philosophy, the completed Museum was handed over to Porsche exactly on time in December of last year. The building sits on the location where the Porsche Design Office moved (from downtown) in |
1938, and is physically where the forerunners of the VW Beetle first saw the light of day later that year, followed by the Type 64 - the legendary Berlin-Rome car in 1939.
Porsche expects more than 200,000 visitors to the Museum each year, and in addition to the cars on display the Museum offers an extensive historical archive department, a "transparent workshop" where you can watch historical cars being maintained and restored, as well as restaurants and conference areas. It will also be used as an event location for film screenings, product launches, and concerts independent of the usual exhibition activities.
Private customers will be able to have the Museum Workshop restore their own cars too, while onlookers watch the master mechanics. While that offering from Porsche might not be the most cost effective for your restoration, if you happen to find yourself in Germany, it's definitely worth a visit.
|
