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As a result of increasing competition and internationalization, many Western European cities have invested in exhibition facilities. Surprisingly, many new exhibition centres emerge in the urban periphery. An assessment of the 34 largest exhibition centres in Western Europe shows that only 16 are still centrally located while 18 now have a peripheral location. This is a drastic break from the traditional location of these centres in inner city cores. Behind this observation of spatial change is a complex set of dilemmas about investments in current or new locations. A fresh analytical model (based on assumptions of path dependency) is constructed and employed to analyse time and place specific determinants and opportunities. Two contrasting cases are selected in comparable German cities. Frankfurt decided to renew its facilities in the centre of the city, whereas Munich opened a relocated exhibition centre in 1998. Based on these case studies, the paper concludes that there is no autonomous force pulling exhibition centres towards the periphery, but it is rather a misfit between the central location and new physical, functional, spatial, and institutional demands that causes a facility to move. Rationale of the PaperThe periphery of metropolitan areas is changing. Functions that were traditionally reserved for inner city locations are now fundamentally reshaping the character of areas outside historic urban cores. Exhibition centres are amongst the functions for which this trend is most clearly manifested. Traditionally located at central locations, more than half of the facilities in Western Europe are now outside of the urban cores of their host cities.Thereby, exhibition centres are illustrative of a broader set of functions, amongst which are sports stadiums, universities, hospitals, shopping malls, and tourist attractions, that are reshaping metropolitan configurations and hierarchies. Such urban functions not only

All over Europe conference and exposition centres are being renovated and extended. The aim of this paper is to propose a framework to analyse these developments. It does so from a historical institutionalist perspective by employing path dependency arguments. However, after an analysis of past and present of exhibition centres in Europe, it is found that this theory contains some omissions which make them less suitable for the analysis of such large scale urban projects. To correct these omissions, a multidimensional view to path dependency, consisting of four different dimensions is proposed. This framework looks at path dependency within and between the dimensions of form, function, spatial embeddedness and institutional setting. It is argued that corresponding developments in all four dimensions lead to path dependent development, while divergence from this correspondence in one of these dimensions leads to a critical juncture. From this analytical framework a typology of exhibition centre development is derived.

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