Long Awaited Porsche Museum to Open Before Year End

If you have had the good fortune to visit the current Porsche Museum then you know their company motto of “small but good” has worked well for them. While a little claustrophobic, due to lack of space, Porsche more than makes up for this through the constant change, and superb choice (yes, that’s my favorite 917 pictured), of the 20 or so cars that call the museum home for short periods of time. Now, with then end of construction in site, including an area for as many as 300 cars, we can expect to see the most significant and historic Porsches, ever produced, all in the same place at the same time.

I for one am looking forward to the opening and plan on making a pilgrimage some time in 2009 to visit this new “Mecca” of everything Porsche.

Full Press Release is below:

Stuttgart. The end is in sight for work on the building site for the new museum for Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart. At present, over 40 different companies with up to 250 tradesmen and specialists are at work at the Porscheplatz. “Work is going well according to plan. Wind and weather allowing, the museum should be completed by the end of the year,” says Anton Hunger, Publicity and Press Manager for Porsche AG with responsibility for the new museum.

The steel construction, which houses 5,600 square meters of exhibition space, was successfully lowered into position on three steel-reinforced concrete plates in autumn 2007. Immediately after this operation, work began on the actual exhibition areas. This work included steel-reinforced ceilings between the floors and generously proportioned ramps and stairways.

The building’s service systems were installed following an ingenious logistics plan and at the same time the exhibition ceilings and wall and floor coverings were produced. While work was still going on with fitting the final cabling and piping ducts for the heating, ventilation and sanitary services in the western end of the building, dry construction and floor covering work was being carried out in the eastern end. “The fact that so much interrelated work is going on at the same time places great demands on the companies involved as regards precise coordination and deadline adherence,” says Armin Wagner, Construction Project Manager. Work on the sheet metal and glass metal façades is also moving swiftly ahead at the new Porsche Museum. Though still concealed behind tall scaffolding, the bold architecture is gradually taking solid shape.

As soon as they enter the foyer in the future, visitors to the new museum will gain an initial impression of the fascination that the Porsche brand holds. Besides an information point, restaurant, coffee bar and a museum shop, there will also be the opportunity to have a look at the museum’s workshop for historic Porsche vehicles. Not only will customers’ vehicles be receiving expert attention here, there will also be more than 300 museum vehicles undergoing preparatory work prior to their world-wide appearances as a ‘Rolling Museum’. Because all the exhibits will spend some periods on the road, the appearance of the exhibition at the Porscheplatz, which features some 80 vehicles, will be constantly changing. Porsche fans can therefore discover different rarities each time they make a visit.

Just as the exhibition area itself is based on three supports, the content of the new museum is also based on three underlying principles: the chronologically arranged product history of Porsche creates the structure which guides visitors along their way. In tandem with this, thematic focal points will be created by bringing together exhibits from different periods. These will direct attention to the most important vehicles, the most significant racing classifications and technical innovations developed by Porsche. The link between historical development and the individual thematic arrangements will be created by a variety of small exhibits, which will portray the third principle, i.e. the unmistakable qualities of the brand, the ‘Porsche Idea’. “The open architecture and exhibition concept create great freedom for visitors, in terms of both space and content: While walking around the museum, the visitor can either follow the course of a product’s history or can focus deliberately on particular thematic arrangements,” explains Christina Becker, Overall Project Manager.

The new Porsche Museum combines the functions of exhibition and event space. With its generously proportioned conference areas and high-class catering facilities, it can also be used for conferences. This characteristic flexibility is entirely independent of normal opening hours.

[Source: Porsche AG, MotorTrend]