One of the most striking features of Messe Stuttgart is its huge parking garage, which spans the A8 Autobahn and can accommodate 4,200 vehicles on five levels. Display rights for the 4-ton logo on both sides of the garage's bridge were sold to Robert Bosch GmbH, which paid around 20 million euros for exclusive advertising space. The logo is the second-largest illuminated sign in the world and the biggest logo in the world after the unlit Hollywood Sign.[1]
Brief history
Messe Stuttgart convention center (dark red, in the upper left corner), next to Stuttgart airportMess Stuttgart convention center with Bosch parking garage at Stuttgart Airport (2019)
Before completion of the new site next to Stuttgart Airport, Messe Stuttgart had been based in the Killesberg suburb of Stuttgart for more than 50 years. As nearby housing estates encroached on the old site's parking and roads, it was closed down to make way for public housing for seniors and apartments.
Criticism
Immediately after opening, Messe Stuttgart was plagued by a number of unexpected teething problems, ranging from faulty barcode readers at the entrances to poor signage.
Construction of the new site, originally approved in 1993, was subject to repeated delays. First, local farmers refused to sell their land after successful lobbying by nearby residents. After compulsory repossession of land was approved by the Baden-Württemberg State Government, demonstrations led to a string of court cases between landowners and the company hired to build the new center. An agreement was eventually reached between the local government and landowners amid cries from local residents that the farmers had "sold out" to politicians and had only gone along with lobbyists in the first place to maximize returns on the sale of land.
References
^ (German) 'Bosch will ins Guinnessbuch der Rekorde.' (Bosch wants to make it into the Guinness Book of Records), Stuttgarter Zeitung Newspaper, 24 September 2007
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