BMW Welt Will Service Direct Pickup Customers and Create Warm and Fuzzies For Bimmer Buyers and Owners

During a ceremonial act taking place on July 16, 2004 in the presence of the Bavarian premier Dr. Edmund Stoiber, Munich's Lord Mayor Christian Ude, architect Professor Wolf D. Prix and Chairman of the Board of Directors of BMW AG, Dr. Helmut Panke, the foundation stone of BMW Welt will be laid. With the construction of BMW Welt, a building complex is being erected on the corner of Petuelring/Lerchenauer Straße, which from June 2006 onwards will be devoted to projecting the fascination of the BMW brand.

The main emphasis will lie on the personal handing over of vehicles to those BMW customers who attach importance to collecting their new automobile directly from the manufacturer. Moreover, BMW Welt will offer a forum for the lifestyle that has been expressed by the familiar BMW motto "driving pleasure" for many decades. BMW Welt will continually aspire to present the philosophy and accomplishment of the BMW brand in the fields of service, development and motor sport.

Therefore, BMW Welt will be both the brand portal and the direct physical and spiritual link to the BMW Group. In addition to planned events and congresses, the public will have the opportunity of visiting the BMW museum and taking part in a guided tour of the facility. The anticipated annual 850,000 visitors will enjoy the shops and restaurants offering their services in sophisticated surroundings, thereby enhancing the overall impression of BMW, making it a true experience.

The BMW Group is investing more than 100 million Euros into this building project which will provide a total of around 200 jobs: BMW Welt was designed by the world-famous Vienna-based architects COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. They received one of the two first prizes awarded in this invited competition for international architects. BMW Welt is one of the first examples of a new generation of 21st century communication centres. The fascinating design concept manifests itself in a dynamically shaped roofscape under which there are ample possibilities for further creativity. This is the "open architecture" propagated by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU for many decades.

The final construction preparation of the project began almost a year ago.

On August 1, 2003 the Olympia multi-storey car park was closed and immediately torn down. In its place a new Park & Ride multi-storey car park was erected just outside the student city. In January 2004, demolition and disposal work on the site of the Olympia multi-storey car park and the P&R area was completed. This was followed by the commencement of special civil engineering work. In the months to follow, the task of filling countless boreholes with concrete was carried out. This resulted in the creation of 775 bore piles, each measuring 17 metres in length.

Having completed the "underground" construction, it is now time to commence with "overground" work, the actual construction of the building above ground level. In the coming months, the concrete construction will rise from foundation level to road level, which will be followed by the erection of the steel structure. The topping out ceremony is planned for the early summer of 2005 and the opening ceremony for June 2006 in time for the Football World Cup.