Smartex® MX is the automatic, always-on leak detection system from ProGeo Monitoring
The system monitors the entire roof surface 24/7. Leaks are automatically and immediately recognized as soon as water penetrates into the roofing envelope.
This minimizes the risk of realizing too late that the waterproofing membrane is leaking and reduces consequential damage. You will know the condition of your roof at all times.
Installation and Measurement
Smartex® MX is suitable for all types of roofing.
The system - permanently installed under the membrane, consists of sensor modules and a conductive layer, all of which are connected to a computer which generates and measures the electrical tension in the grid.
The computer constantly generates status reports describing the condition of the roof at any time as it controls all the functions of the entire system.
Location of Leaks
If the computer detects a leak in the roof or a fault in the system itself, it sounds an acoustical alarm. Smartex® MX then calculates the location of the leak, which can be read by building column designation or by a grid overlay of a plan of the building.
Connections to the internet and alarm notification by SMS and email are also available options.
All Smartex system components are delivered installation-ready.
On-site support and instruction assures expert application.
The sensors are supplied as module chains and laid loose on the membrane substrate (insulation, decking, etc.).
The special conductive felt is covers the module chains and is either loose-laid or adhered by mastic or bitumen.
The hand-held terminal is used during installation to check whether the module chains have been placed correctly and, after the system has been commissioned, for the exact location of the leak in the event the alarm is triggered.
The measuring and evaluation unit is the heart of the Smartex® Monitoring System. The permanent measuring cycles are controlled from here, the measuring data is analyzed and, in case of damage, the alarm is triggered.
Installation of Smartex® leak detection system in the roof of the Kolumba, Diocesan Museum in Cologne, Germany.
Hospitals/Care Facilities
Carolinum in the University Frankfurt a. M.
3.600 m ²
Client commissioning the project: Staatsbauamt Frankfurt a. M.
Medico - Medical centre in Leverkusen
2.500 m ²
Client commissioning the project: Klinikum Leverkusen
Gynecological Clinic at the University Freiburg
1.580 m ²
Client commissioning the Planning: department and building control office for the University of Freiburg
Gulielminnetti-Care Home for the Elderly, Marktoberdorf
966 m ²
Client commissioning the project: Town of Marktoberdorf
Schools/Children's Facilities/Universities
Free University (Rostlaube), Berlin
10.000 m²
Client commissioning the project: Land Berlin, Senate Administration for Construction, Housing and Transport
University of Music Freiburg, Chamber Music Hall
3.080 m²
Client commissioning the project: State Property and Civil Engineering Freiburg
Merseburger Straße School Munich
1.600 m²
Client commissioning the project: City of Munich
Student Halls of Residence, Berlin
1.320 m²
Client commissioning the project: Students Association Berlin
University of Freiburg, Central Collection Depot for Geology and Mineralogy
580 m²
Client commissioning the project: Planning department and Building control office for the University of Freiburg
Josef-Hofmiller-Grammar School, Freising
450 m²
Client commissioning the project: Town of Freising
Industrial/Warehousing/Sales Rooms
BMW-world, Munich
16.000 m²
Client commissioning the project: BMW AG
SCA-HYGIENE PRODUCTS
4.430 m²
\ Client commissioning the project: SCA HYGIENE PRODUCTS GmbH, Mannheim
Mercedes-Benz – Customer Centre Sindelfingen
4.350 m²
Client commissioning the project: Daimler Benz AG, Sindelfingen
Bilstein High Level Shelving Warehouse, Hohenlimburg
1.550 m²
Client commissioning the project: Bilstein GmbH, Hagen-Hohenlimburg
Stockmeyer Meat Products Factory Sassenberg
1.386 m²
Client commissioning the project: Westphalian Meat Products Factory Stockmeyer GmbH & Co. KG
REWE-Head Office Dortmund
1.100 m²
Client commissioning the project: REWE Dortmund
Solvay Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Hannover
1.500 m²
Client commissioning the project: Solvay Pharmaceuticals GmbH
Office Buildings
CITY REACH INTERNATIONAL, Berlin
Server and Office Buildings
9.950 m²
Client commissioning the project: CITY REACH INTERNATIONAL, London
Land Archive Berlin, Eichborndamm
8.240 m²
Client commissioning the project: DIBAG Industriebau AG, Berlin
DaimlerChrysler AG, data centre, Stuttgart
2.680 m²
Client commissioning the project: DaimlerChrysler AG, Stuttgart
International Banking Center – Deutsche Bank, data centre, Frankfurt a. M.
780 m²
Client commissioning the project: Deutsche Bank Frankfurt a. M.
Tax office, Traunstein
700 m²
Client commissioning the project: Staatliches Hochbauamt Traunstein
Postbank-Branch, Berlin
680 m²
Client commissioning the project: Postbank Berlin
Embassy of sultanate of Oman
450 m²
Client commissioning the project: Embassy of sultanate of Oman
Works Manager's Apartment, Hagenburg
400 m²
Client commissioning the project: Töller Laserkraft GmbH Hagenburg
DEUTSCHE BANK-Branch, Frankfurt a. M.
150 m²
Client commissioning the project: Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt a. M.
Other
Pond with Fountain at the debis-Center, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin
10.800 m²
Client commissioning the project: debis AG, Berlin
Airport Rostock-Laage /Building for flight simulator
2.750 m²
Client commissioning the project: Landesbauamt Rostock
Building for flight simulator, Neuburg a.d.D.
1.900 m²
Client commissioning the project: Staatliches Hochbauamt Ingolstadt
Seminary, Freiburg
403 m²
Client commissioning the project: Erzbischöfliches Ordinariat, München
Vita-Thermen, Hohenfelden
1.425 m²
Client commissioning the project: Vita-Thermen, Hohenfelden
Duke University Hospital
Durham, North Carolina
The Duke University Hospital is embarking on a green building course which will set an example for institutions across the coutry. One of the primary green building initiatives at Duke is to render as many materials as possible recyclable including reusing materials in similar applications wherever possible. In the case of roofing, Duke was looking for roofing system which could be removed and then moved to another project.
This is exactly what Duke did with the Civitan Building on their Durham, North Carolina campus. The Civitan Building had an existing tar and gravel roof which was approaching the end of its life. Duke did not want to rip the roof off, as this would generate a great deal of debris to be landfilled.
Instead, the old roof was simply swept of loose gravel and the new roofing was applied directly over the old roof. The new roofing was a modified polyolefin material. To fulfill on their broad commitment to recycling, the membrane and most of the components had to be loose laid rather than adhered or fastened to the structure, as future reuse materials would not have been possible with an adhered system.
Duke chose an IRMA loose laid roofing system. One disadvantage of an IRMA system is the difficulty in locating a leak if and when one does develop. Also, in the Civitan building, because there was another virtually watertight membrane under the new roofing membrane, this secondard watertight membrane might prevent any evidence of leakage from becoming apparent. In these types of cases, the roof envelope can become saturated and the building can sustain major damage before the leak is found.
To prevent this problem from developing, Duke selected a SMARTEX™ leak monitoring system by Progeo to monitor the condition of the roofing membrane. Their SMARTEX system consisted of sensor modules linked to the system computer inside the building. The sensors were over-lain by a conductive glass felt so that the entire system could sense and locate any leakage in the roofing membrane. This system is now monitoring the roof for leaks 24 hours per day. The SMARTEX™ MEA computer is connected to the internet, and the status of the roofing membrane can be viewed any time of the day or night.
BMW's Shrine to Horsepower
Starting in October, customers in Germany will be able to buy their cars through a dealer and, for a fee, pick them up at attention with similar museums at Porsche, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz.
BMW Welt, an ultramodern showroom in Munich that will include a gallery of BMW's model range.
By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 27, 2007
MUNICH, July 20 — Strolling through BMW Welt, with its cyclone-shaped entrance and billowing, cloudlike facade, it is easy to forget why the carmaker built this more than $250 million palace: to hand over cars to customers.
Cliff Serna for The New York Times
BMW Welt a futuristic showroom scheduled to open in October, will compete for
attention with similar museums at Porsche, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz.
Starting in October, about 170 vehicles a day will be delivered to the cathedral-like showroom at BMW Welt (BMW World, in English). Rather than picking up a new car at a local dealership, drivers who pay a little extra for the privilege come here to receive delivery of their vehicles, finding them bathed in a spotlight and rotating on a turntable. Even in a country famous for its worship of the automobile, rarely has so elegant a form been harnessed to so mundane a function. "Our dealers are like local churches, while BMW Welt is St. Peter's Cathedral," said Michael Ganal, BMW's director of marketing. BMW Welt is also only the latest in a string of lavish, architecturally distinct temples erected by German carmakers to showcase their wares and, more importantly, to burnish their brands. The building boom reflects the increasingly intense competition among the world's leading luxury carmakers — as well as the threat posed by younger asian auto brands that are gaining on them.
Nowadays, that competition turns as much on heritage and image as on horsepower and handling.
"These buildings are an attempt to re-create product differentiation on a different plane," said Garel Rhys, director of the Center for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University in Wales. "As the cars become almost homogeneous in technology, the battle is on the marketing side."
At a time when Detroit's Big Three are retrenching and selling off assets, the German edifice complex also attests to the much healthier state of the auto industry here than in the United States.
Still, with Toyota's 18-year-old Lexus line outranking BMW and Mercedes in quality and reliability surveys, analysts say the Germans have little choice but to promote their pedigrees.
BMW has not disclosed the cost of the Welt project; people close to the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the numbers are not public, said the price tag was significantly more than 200 million euros, or about $275 million. While Mr. Ganal said it was difficult to judge what a reasonable return would be on a building like this one, he said BMW Welt would prove to be a "wise and well-justified" investment. Other German carmakers apparently feel the same pressure. Last year, Mercedes opened a sparkling, futuristic Mercedes-Benz museum in its home city, Stuttgart. Across town, Porsche is constructing its own ultramodern museum, whose construction makes it appear to hover above the ground. The granddaddy of such facilities is the Autostadt, a seven- year-old complex adjacent to Volkswagen's factory in Wolfsburg, which features a museum and visitors center where customers can choose new cars that are then fetched from the factory and parked in a pair of circular glass towers.
About two million people a year visit the 62-acre complex, which looks a bit like a World's Fair exposition. It is one of Germany's top tourist attractions.
BMW expects 800,000 visitors a year, many more than those taking delivery of new cars. Of the 45,000 cars expected to be picked up each year, about 80 percent will go to Germans, the rest to other Europeans and Americans.
To some extent, BMW is playing catch-up. Mercedes pioneered the delivery of cars at its factory in Sindelfingen, southwest of Stuttgart, in the 1950s. It delivers more than 80,000 vehicles a year at its customer center, where guests are offered a tour of the assembly line, a bite to eat and their new cars, with enough fuel to get them on the autobahn.
BMW's Mr. Ganal, who grew up near Stuttgart, recalls going with his father to pick up their new Mercedes at the factory. The ritual, he said, deepens the bond between Mercedes owners and their cars.
BMW's new service will be similar to that of Mercedes. German customers will buy their cars through a dealer and, for an extra charge of 457 euros ($630), will be able to pick them up at BMW Welt. (Americans can also pick up cars here; the price for European delivery will increase somewhat.)
The owners will get a tour of BMW's Munich assembly plant — its oldest, which produces the 3 Series compact — as well as vouchers to eat at restaurants in the delivery center.
But BMW Welt has grander ambitions. Its architect, Wolf D. Prix of the Vienna firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, said his model was not Volkswagen's Autostadt but the Acropolis in Athens. "It's a kind of covered plaza, where things can happen which are not necessarily connected with buying a car," Mr. Prix said.
The building includes a vast public gallery, where BMW will display its complete model range, a conference center that can rented out and a center for children, ages 7 to 13, to learn about mobility.
In Germany, Mr. Prix said, carmakers are taking over the role once played by the church or local princes: constructing landmark buildings. BMW recently hired Zaha Hadid, the British-based, Iraqi-born architect, to design the administration building for its assembly plant in Leipzig.
Few visitors to Munich are likely to miss BMW Welt. It sits on one of the main roads leading into the city, next to BMW's headquarters, a bulbous tower known as the Four- Cylinder building, and the BMW Museum, a 1973 building that looks like an giant soup bowl.
BMW recently refurbished the Four-Cylinder building and is adding a pavilion next to the museum, which will quintuple its size. It will reopen in the spring, completing BMW's campus.
"What the museums show is that these companies have been around a long time, especially Mercedes and BMW," said Mr. Rhys, the Cardiff research center director. "They press their heritage because Lexus doesn't have any."
Lexus may be a parvenu in the eyes of BMW and Mercedes, but it has grabbed other, equally important accolades. In a 2007 survey of initial quality by J. D. Power & Associates, Lexus ranked second after Porsche, three places ahead of Mercedes and 19 ahead of BMW.
Beyond the quality of its cars, some question how long BMW can thrive in its current size. Its name has come up as a bidder for Volvo, the Swedish carmaker that Ford recently put on the block. Mr. Ganal declined to comment on the rumors, which analysts said they viewed as far-fetched, given BMW's past woes with acquisitions. It lost billions of dollars in an ill-fated acquisition of Britain's Rover in the 1990s
Worldwide, BMW remains the No. 1 premium carmaker, and its sales are robust. In June, the BMW Group, which includes Mini and Rolls-Royce, delivered 150,285 vehicles, a 15.1 percent increase over June of last year, and the most it has ever delivered in a single month.
For all its civic and artistic aspirations, BMW Welt's real job is to increase those numbers further. "At the end of the day," Mr. Ganal conceded, "we have to recognize that a car- delivery center is just a car-delivery center."
The system monitors the entire roof surface 24/7. Leaks are automatically and immediately recognized as soon as water penetrates into the roofing envelope.
This minimizes the risk of realizing too late that the waterproofing membrane is leaking and reduces consequential damage. You will know the condition of your roof at all times.
Installation and Measurement
Smartex® MX is suitable for all types of roofing.
The system - permanently installed under the membrane, consists of sensor modules and a conductive layer, all of which are connected to a computer which generates and measures the electrical tension in the grid.
The computer constantly generates status reports describing the condition of the roof at any time as it controls all the functions of the entire system.
Location of Leaks
If the computer detects a leak in the roof or a fault in the system itself, it sounds an acoustical alarm. Smartex® MX then calculates the location of the leak, which can be read by building column designation or by a grid overlay of a plan of the building.
Connections to the internet and alarm notification by SMS and email are also available options.
Function
Smartex® MX – your complete roof monitoring solution
If the computer detects a leak in the roof or a fault in the system itself, it sounds an accoustical alarm. Smartex® MX then calculates the location of the leak, which can be read by building column designation or by a grid overlay of a plan of the building. Connections to the internet and alarm notification by SMS and email are also available options.
Location of Leaks
Installation and measurement
Smartex® MX is suitable for all types of roofing. The system, permanently installed under the membrane, consists of sensor modules and a conductive layer, all of which are connected to a computer which generates and measures the electrical tension in the grid. The computer constantly generates status reports describing the condition of the roof at any time as it controls all the functions of the entire system. This minimizes the risk of realizing too late that the waterproofing membrane is leaking and reduces consequential damage. Smartex® MX monitors the entire roof surface 24/7. Leaks are automatically and im-mediately recognized as soon as water penetrates into the roofing envelope.
Smartex® MX - Does it leak or doesn't it?
Leak detection system for automatic, permanent membrane monitoring.
You will know the condition of your roof at all times.
Product features at a glance:
- Other measurements such as temperature, moisture in the roof envelope, CO2, etc. are available.
- Price: from 8,00 € m² exclusive of installation.
- Can be used under most constructions on the roof.
- Automatic data acquisition (optional visual representation of the roof via internet available).
- Automatic leak detection and location.
- Smartex® - Leak detection components are manufactured according to ISO 9001 and the DQS certified management system.
Smartex® MX
Does it leak or doesn't it?
Leak detection system for automatic, permanent membrane monitoring
Smartex®MX
- Leak detection system: Smartex® conductive layer and chains of sensing modules built into the roofing envelope.
- Can be used in all available roofing systems – single-ply or hot or cold bitumen.
- Permanent, automatic roof monitoring.
Installation
Uncomplicated installation:All Smartex system components are delivered installation-ready.
On-site support and instruction assures expert application.
The sensors are supplied as module chains and laid loose on the membrane substrate (insulation, decking, etc.). The special conductive felt is covers the module chains and is either loose-laid or adhered by mastic or bitumen. The hand-held terminal is used during installation to check whether the module chains have been placed correctly and, after the system has been commissioned, for the exact location of the leak in the event the alarm is triggered.The measuring and evaluation unit is the heart of the Smartex® Monitoring System. The permanent measuring cycles are controlled from here, the measuring data is analyzed and, in case of damage, the alarm is triggered. References
References - Extract from the Reference ListInstallation of Smartex® leak detection system in the roof of the Kolumba, Diocesan Museum in Cologne, Germany.
Hospitals/Care Facilities
Carolinum in the University Frankfurt a. M.
3.600 m ²
Client commissioning the project: Staatsbauamt Frankfurt a. M.
Medico - Medical centre in Leverkusen
2.500 m ²
Client commissioning the project: Klinikum Leverkusen
Gynecological Clinic at the University Freiburg
1.580 m ²
Client commissioning the Planning: department and building control office for the University of Freiburg
Gulielminnetti-Care Home for the Elderly, Marktoberdorf
966 m ²
Client commissioning the project: Town of Marktoberdorf
Schools/Children's Facilities/Universities
Free University (Rostlaube), Berlin
10.000 m²
Client commissioning the project: Land Berlin, Senate Administration for Construction, Housing and Transport
University of Music Freiburg, Chamber Music Hall
3.080 m²
Client commissioning the project: State Property and Civil Engineering Freiburg
Merseburger Straße School Munich
1.600 m²
Client commissioning the project: City of Munich
Student Halls of Residence, Berlin
1.320 m²
Client commissioning the project: Students Association Berlin
University of Freiburg, Central Collection Depot for Geology and Mineralogy
580 m²
Client commissioning the project: Planning department and Building control office for the University of Freiburg
Josef-Hofmiller-Grammar School, Freising
450 m²
Client commissioning the project: Town of Freising
Industrial/Warehousing/Sales Rooms
BMW-world, Munich
16.000 m²
Client commissioning the project: BMW AG
SCA-HYGIENE PRODUCTS
4.430 m²
\ Client commissioning the project: SCA HYGIENE PRODUCTS GmbH, Mannheim
Mercedes-Benz – Customer Centre Sindelfingen
4.350 m²
Client commissioning the project: Daimler Benz AG, Sindelfingen
Bilstein High Level Shelving Warehouse, Hohenlimburg
1.550 m²
Client commissioning the project: Bilstein GmbH, Hagen-Hohenlimburg
Stockmeyer Meat Products Factory Sassenberg
1.386 m²
Client commissioning the project: Westphalian Meat Products Factory Stockmeyer GmbH & Co. KG
REWE-Head Office Dortmund
1.100 m²
Client commissioning the project: REWE Dortmund
Solvay Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Hannover
1.500 m²
Client commissioning the project: Solvay Pharmaceuticals GmbH
Office Buildings
CITY REACH INTERNATIONAL, Berlin
Server and Office Buildings
9.950 m²
Client commissioning the project: CITY REACH INTERNATIONAL, London
Land Archive Berlin, Eichborndamm
8.240 m²
Client commissioning the project: DIBAG Industriebau AG, Berlin
DaimlerChrysler AG, data centre, Stuttgart
2.680 m²
Client commissioning the project: DaimlerChrysler AG, Stuttgart
International Banking Center – Deutsche Bank, data centre, Frankfurt a. M.
780 m²
Client commissioning the project: Deutsche Bank Frankfurt a. M.
Tax office, Traunstein
700 m²
Client commissioning the project: Staatliches Hochbauamt Traunstein
Postbank-Branch, Berlin
680 m²
Client commissioning the project: Postbank Berlin
Embassy of sultanate of Oman
450 m²
Client commissioning the project: Embassy of sultanate of Oman
Works Manager's Apartment, Hagenburg
400 m²
Client commissioning the project: Töller Laserkraft GmbH Hagenburg
DEUTSCHE BANK-Branch, Frankfurt a. M.
150 m²
Client commissioning the project: Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt a. M.
Other
Pond with Fountain at the debis-Center, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin
10.800 m²
Client commissioning the project: debis AG, Berlin
Airport Rostock-Laage /Building for flight simulator
2.750 m²
Client commissioning the project: Landesbauamt Rostock
Building for flight simulator, Neuburg a.d.D.
1.900 m²
Client commissioning the project: Staatliches Hochbauamt Ingolstadt
Seminary, Freiburg
403 m²
Client commissioning the project: Erzbischöfliches Ordinariat, München
Vita-Thermen, Hohenfelden
1.425 m²
Client commissioning the project: Vita-Thermen, Hohenfelden
Typical Projects
LEAK MONITORINGDuke University Hospital
Durham, North Carolina
The Duke University Hospital is embarking on a green building course which will set an example for institutions across the coutry. One of the primary green building initiatives at Duke is to render as many materials as possible recyclable including reusing materials in similar applications wherever possible. In the case of roofing, Duke was looking for roofing system which could be removed and then moved to another project. This is exactly what Duke did with the Civitan Building on their Durham, North Carolina campus. The Civitan Building had an existing tar and gravel roof which was approaching the end of its life. Duke did not want to rip the roof off, as this would generate a great deal of debris to be landfilled.
Instead, the old roof was simply swept of loose gravel and the new roofing was applied directly over the old roof. The new roofing was a modified polyolefin material. To fulfill on their broad commitment to recycling, the membrane and most of the components had to be loose laid rather than adhered or fastened to the structure, as future reuse materials would not have been possible with an adhered system.
Duke chose an IRMA loose laid roofing system. One disadvantage of an IRMA system is the difficulty in locating a leak if and when one does develop. Also, in the Civitan building, because there was another virtually watertight membrane under the new roofing membrane, this secondard watertight membrane might prevent any evidence of leakage from becoming apparent. In these types of cases, the roof envelope can become saturated and the building can sustain major damage before the leak is found. To prevent this problem from developing, Duke selected a SMARTEX™ leak monitoring system by Progeo to monitor the condition of the roofing membrane. Their SMARTEX system consisted of sensor modules linked to the system computer inside the building. The sensors were over-lain by a conductive glass felt so that the entire system could sense and locate any leakage in the roofing membrane. This system is now monitoring the roof for leaks 24 hours per day. The SMARTEX™ MEA computer is connected to the internet, and the status of the roofing membrane can be viewed any time of the day or night.
BMW's Shrine to Horsepower
Starting in October, customers in Germany will be able to buy their cars through a dealer and, for a fee, pick them up at attention with similar museums at Porsche, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz.
BMW Welt, an ultramodern showroom in Munich that will include a gallery of BMW's model range.
By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 27, 2007
MUNICH, July 20 — Strolling through BMW Welt, with its cyclone-shaped entrance and billowing, cloudlike facade, it is easy to forget why the carmaker built this more than $250 million palace: to hand over cars to customers.
Cliff Serna for The New York Times
BMW Welt a futuristic showroom scheduled to open in October, will compete for
attention with similar museums at Porsche, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz.
Starting in October, about 170 vehicles a day will be delivered to the cathedral-like showroom at BMW Welt (BMW World, in English). Rather than picking up a new car at a local dealership, drivers who pay a little extra for the privilege come here to receive delivery of their vehicles, finding them bathed in a spotlight and rotating on a turntable. Even in a country famous for its worship of the automobile, rarely has so elegant a form been harnessed to so mundane a function. "Our dealers are like local churches, while BMW Welt is St. Peter's Cathedral," said Michael Ganal, BMW's director of marketing. BMW Welt is also only the latest in a string of lavish, architecturally distinct temples erected by German carmakers to showcase their wares and, more importantly, to burnish their brands. The building boom reflects the increasingly intense competition among the world's leading luxury carmakers — as well as the threat posed by younger asian auto brands that are gaining on them.
Nowadays, that competition turns as much on heritage and image as on horsepower and handling.
"These buildings are an attempt to re-create product differentiation on a different plane," said Garel Rhys, director of the Center for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University in Wales. "As the cars become almost homogeneous in technology, the battle is on the marketing side."
At a time when Detroit's Big Three are retrenching and selling off assets, the German edifice complex also attests to the much healthier state of the auto industry here than in the United States.
Still, with Toyota's 18-year-old Lexus line outranking BMW and Mercedes in quality and reliability surveys, analysts say the Germans have little choice but to promote their pedigrees.
BMW has not disclosed the cost of the Welt project; people close to the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the numbers are not public, said the price tag was significantly more than 200 million euros, or about $275 million. While Mr. Ganal said it was difficult to judge what a reasonable return would be on a building like this one, he said BMW Welt would prove to be a "wise and well-justified" investment. Other German carmakers apparently feel the same pressure. Last year, Mercedes opened a sparkling, futuristic Mercedes-Benz museum in its home city, Stuttgart. Across town, Porsche is constructing its own ultramodern museum, whose construction makes it appear to hover above the ground. The granddaddy of such facilities is the Autostadt, a seven- year-old complex adjacent to Volkswagen's factory in Wolfsburg, which features a museum and visitors center where customers can choose new cars that are then fetched from the factory and parked in a pair of circular glass towers.
About two million people a year visit the 62-acre complex, which looks a bit like a World's Fair exposition. It is one of Germany's top tourist attractions.
BMW expects 800,000 visitors a year, many more than those taking delivery of new cars. Of the 45,000 cars expected to be picked up each year, about 80 percent will go to Germans, the rest to other Europeans and Americans.
To some extent, BMW is playing catch-up. Mercedes pioneered the delivery of cars at its factory in Sindelfingen, southwest of Stuttgart, in the 1950s. It delivers more than 80,000 vehicles a year at its customer center, where guests are offered a tour of the assembly line, a bite to eat and their new cars, with enough fuel to get them on the autobahn.
BMW's Mr. Ganal, who grew up near Stuttgart, recalls going with his father to pick up their new Mercedes at the factory. The ritual, he said, deepens the bond between Mercedes owners and their cars.
BMW's new service will be similar to that of Mercedes. German customers will buy their cars through a dealer and, for an extra charge of 457 euros ($630), will be able to pick them up at BMW Welt. (Americans can also pick up cars here; the price for European delivery will increase somewhat.)
The owners will get a tour of BMW's Munich assembly plant — its oldest, which produces the 3 Series compact — as well as vouchers to eat at restaurants in the delivery center.
But BMW Welt has grander ambitions. Its architect, Wolf D. Prix of the Vienna firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, said his model was not Volkswagen's Autostadt but the Acropolis in Athens. "It's a kind of covered plaza, where things can happen which are not necessarily connected with buying a car," Mr. Prix said.
The building includes a vast public gallery, where BMW will display its complete model range, a conference center that can rented out and a center for children, ages 7 to 13, to learn about mobility.
In Germany, Mr. Prix said, carmakers are taking over the role once played by the church or local princes: constructing landmark buildings. BMW recently hired Zaha Hadid, the British-based, Iraqi-born architect, to design the administration building for its assembly plant in Leipzig.
Few visitors to Munich are likely to miss BMW Welt. It sits on one of the main roads leading into the city, next to BMW's headquarters, a bulbous tower known as the Four- Cylinder building, and the BMW Museum, a 1973 building that looks like an giant soup bowl.
BMW recently refurbished the Four-Cylinder building and is adding a pavilion next to the museum, which will quintuple its size. It will reopen in the spring, completing BMW's campus.
"What the museums show is that these companies have been around a long time, especially Mercedes and BMW," said Mr. Rhys, the Cardiff research center director. "They press their heritage because Lexus doesn't have any."
Lexus may be a parvenu in the eyes of BMW and Mercedes, but it has grabbed other, equally important accolades. In a 2007 survey of initial quality by J. D. Power & Associates, Lexus ranked second after Porsche, three places ahead of Mercedes and 19 ahead of BMW.
Beyond the quality of its cars, some question how long BMW can thrive in its current size. Its name has come up as a bidder for Volvo, the Swedish carmaker that Ford recently put on the block. Mr. Ganal declined to comment on the rumors, which analysts said they viewed as far-fetched, given BMW's past woes with acquisitions. It lost billions of dollars in an ill-fated acquisition of Britain's Rover in the 1990s
Worldwide, BMW remains the No. 1 premium carmaker, and its sales are robust. In June, the BMW Group, which includes Mini and Rolls-Royce, delivered 150,285 vehicles, a 15.1 percent increase over June of last year, and the most it has ever delivered in a single month.
For all its civic and artistic aspirations, BMW Welt's real job is to increase those numbers further. "At the end of the day," Mr. Ganal conceded, "we have to recognize that a car- delivery center is just a car-delivery center."
