Bob is joining us just as we emerge from the pandemic as people are craving compelling, visceral experiences in the places where they live, work, and play., At Disney, we often collaborated with Gensler, and I was able to see firsthand its culture of design innovation that transforms the quality of life in our world, Bob Weis said. People are really looking for an experience about optimism. When I joined Disney, work was ramping up on two major projects: EPCOT in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland. Now, I get to take my passion, expand it, and inject experiences into projects all over the world that will reach people in their everyday lives.. always evolving and moving forward. Having joined Walt Disney Imagineering in 1980, Weis became president of the studio in 2016. And it becomes very clear that the idea of telling stories for people to experience over and over and in their own wayas I said, as characters in their own experienceWalt was very clear about wanting [the park to be] a seamless environment. They had a huge impact on the park and guided us on everything from Now, I get to take my passion, expand it, and inject experiences into projects all over the world that will reach people in their everyday lives. This is different from what were used to, which is watching things on a screen or seeing a piece of sculpture or painting in a museum. Weis would prove a trailblazer with his approach to ACTION! Profiled are: In Their Footsteps: Lewis and Clark; ACTION! We cut through two floors of Rockefeller Center and we had to keep the building going for the tenants 24/7.. After a 42-year-long career, with plenty to be proud of, he had earned a well-deserved restor so it seemed! You would come up with something unique, and then be encouraged to do more. My good fortune is my sister is a forensic toxicologist and was running the Baltimore Police Department lab, she said, I was able to reach out to her and ask her to help me navigate the subject matter and make sure we were interpreting it correctly. On opening day, you saw the culmination of the efforts of those who made it go from muddy fields to a fully realized, magical place. Certainly, the way we design has changed; the way we develop and visualize and engineer things has changed. DETAILS BELOW Bob Weiss (born May 7, 1942) is famous for being basketball coach. We have to keep them fresh. Bob had a talent for pulling the best people on to his team. He is best known for his Disney projects most recently his leadership roles on the Disney California Adventure and Shanghai Disneyland parks. You can withdraw your consent for these messages at any time. He totally respected Ricardo and it helps that Bob came out of architecture [Weis received a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona in 1980]. exhibit] with Kurt Haunfelner. Weir met fellow Grateful Dead founding member Jerry Garcia in a moment of happenstance on New Year's Eve 1963. Its been great to have the confidence of the company behind us, Weis says. And the last element that is key to an immersive experience and this is maybe the hardest to accomplish is that we are giving people agency in the story itself. We specialize in creating custom-crafted content designed to appeal to the industrys top designers, creators, developers, owners and operators. The complexities of the project, the needs of the team, the vision of the organization, the daily challenges and frustrations and through it all he never loses his love of it. We want people to feel that these experiences are their story and that the story becomes about them. How do you tell a story in [three-dimensional] space? We had a great team! shares Romans. He called Weis to see who he knew. Eventually, we added a small gallery at The American Adventure. We are constantly refreshing and looking forward to the next thing. D23: You were president at WDI during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For Seruto, her projects with Weis often evoked personal experience and personal history. Subjects and filmmakers both rode for nine days, often for twelve hours a day, as Viola led the group to key spots documented by the Lewis and Clark expedition. He recently We even put in 1,200 trees and took out elements that felt like they could be in any sort of non-Disney amusement park. By using tools that had heretofore been traditionally limited to filmmaking and themed entertainment design, ACTION! Romans and his team at the museum were interested in integrating characters from a leading TV show into the new exhibit. also want to express my respect and admiration for Imagineers and their endless It was professionally produced with sound effects and music, and they could email it to family and friends. Like everything we do at Imagineering, we started with a story. Its always a brainstorming session, a discussion of ideas. I went back to Shanghai after we opened and saw how quickly the Shanghai audiencerelatively inexperienced in theme parks or in Disneyadopted it and made it their own. Weis retired as global ambassador for. As exhausted as I would be But in its first year it got almost double the attendance we had planned for, so to increase capacity we quickly added things like Muppet*Vision 3D and more stage shows, then later Sunset Boulevard and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. original park had not resonated with audiences as well as we hoped, so I was D23: You were indeed one of the kids once, since you once sold popcorn and ice cream at Disneyland. The project made sailors feel like they were at sea for twelve hours. Bob was very responsible for not getting in the way of this famous architect, but actually working with him.. What is more surprising is Weiss decision to come out of retirement for the job. In his new role, Weis will collaborate with Genslers global leadership platform to envision and bring to life unique experiences for clients across a variety of industries where the firm is immersed from entertainment, lifestyle, hospitality, retail, sports, mixed use, and cultural institutions to wellness and workplace. And there was a big part about dinosaurs. Related: Legendary Disney Imagineer Retiring After 42 Years. Working on the CSI exhibit evoked another family connection for Seruto. And for those of us designing immersive experiences, its up to us to find ways to actively put people more physically and emotionally in the story so that they become truly invested and connected to a place. back you can see the things the way you saw them before. We wanted to create a story in the childrens ward that would communicate positively to both patients and parents who are going through this process. A few months after announcing his retirement from The Walt Disney Company, former Imagineer Bob Weis has joined design and architecture firm Gensler as their Global Immersive Experience Design leader. Disney theme park projects around the globe over the span of five decades. A deep love for Imagineering and tremendous respect for the people who built it, but also such enthusiasm for the new and future talent that inhabit those hallowed halls. He kept changing the environment, and this brought out peoples ideas that we otherwise might have missed. nathan redmond mother. Weis was with Walt Disney Imagineering for 42 years, serving as president of WDI for a time and then Global Imagineering Ambassador. His steady approach allows him to take on intimate projects or scale up to something massive without losing sight of his leadership role and the vision the team is working toward. To increase the level of excitement, the elevator shafts were filled with animated LED lighting, complementing the see-through video projected on the top of the elevator carriage. Just over the last decade. what happens when the marshals came to your house / peroneal nerve entrapment / POST I felt that Bob had a crystal ball he was a few steps ahead of everyone, a visionary. The exhibit portion featured different jobs in moviemaking, done semi-chronologically. Throughout the development and construction process, Weis and his team managed to bring the experience into the 21st century, while maintaining the historical integrity of the structure. Were looking for communal celebratory experiences with our friends, family, and other people in our community. But we get to work side by side with some of the most Joes blog, Themes, Schemes, and Dreams can be found at themesrenewed.home.blog. points of view to everything they do. Inside the Magic consists of multiple writers & videographers living near both Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks and around the world. Disney Imagineering President Bob Weis steps down ahead of Lake Nona move Bob Weis stepped down as president of Walt Disney Imagineering this week as his department moves to Lake Nona from. Thats one of the big things that Marty was writing and speaking about: a sense of optimism. studying for a degree in architecture with a minor in theater design, and I storied culture, and it was critical for us to appreciate that and work closely People want to be inspired and moved in some way and feel some kind of connection to a space, so I think we all benefit from using storytelling as a critical part of any space. Throughout the experience, actual forensic investigators appeared on screen. It all comes back to the three things I talked about earlier. was my introduction to Bob, he says. but now its been outsourced to a completely different company, so where are we getting the next generation of creativity from for the Disney parks? By submitting this form, you are granting Disney Parks Blog permission to email you. Creative Direction, former Disney Imagineer, Chick Russell, Executive Producer and Creative Director at Chick Russell & Company, former Disney Imagineer, Van Romans, President of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, former Executive Director, Cultural Affairs, Walt Disney Imagineering, Tim Steinouer, Creative Producer at Steinouer Creative, former partner at Design Island, Nancy Seruto, Owner of Seruto LLC, former Disney Imagineer, John Beckman, Director, Exhibit Design and Production at Adler Planetarium, former Director of Exhibit Design and Development at MSI, Chicago, Kurt Haunfelner, Senior Vice President for Exhibitions at California Science Center, formerly Vice President of Exhibits and Collections at MSI, Chicago. It seems retirement didnt suit the former head of Walt Disney Imagineering! Regarding why he chose to join Gensler, Weis said: Gensler has long designed for the human experience, and I hope to build on the amazing work and culture the firm as created. Before the move, Weis spent more than 30 years at Disney. With Bob, you can change things and do things slightly differently. He is inspirational, the best of the best in this business, but also so humble and just lovely to work with. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern. And they want experiences in which they feel like they are impacting the story in some ways. We ended up using pieces from the Tishman collection in this new gallery, showcasing them with contemporary pieces by young African American artists. In the 1990s, the museum had produced a traveling exhibit called Whodunit? Battle Stations 21 was one of the first major applications of themed entertainment design to training simulation, leading the way for other companies to provide similar training services for first responders, the military, and municipal infrastructure. Bob and I share classic film knowledge, he says. And it gave me a great understanding You have a real authentic impact on the experience. He cared about his people; people responded with devotion to him and the project as a result. Disney had purchased the Tishman collection of African art, one of the largest private collections in the world. the architectural ornamentation of the castle. Theres nothing more satisfying or more rewarding than that. That led us to come up with a park that would be linked by various ports of call around the world, which became the concept for Tokyo DisneySea. The premiere of Shanghai Disneyland was a beautiful moment. Bob Weis was created on November 14, 1947 in Germany. Weve also discovered that there are certain things that work across the globe that people want to do together. https://t.co/oJ3p2gKnyE, Gensler (@gensler_design) January 12, 2023. BW: I did, in college. That was another great family connection because to work alongside your sister who for your whole life is in such a completely different field than you, and learn about each others work, was bonding and great and a really wonderful way to get to know her.. Bob Weis Design Island Associates Inc. 2000 - 20077 years Design consultant to Smithsonian, DIsney, Dreamworks, Sony, Fox, United States Navy, Paul Allen. Im also passionate about doing things that are closer to peoples everyday lives, and theres no other place I can realize that passion than at Gensler. Now, I get to take my passion, expand it, and inject experiences into projects all over the world that will reach people in their everyday lives. By Bruce Steele. While we have a long history of building Disneyland-style parks, we wanted to make this one unique and tailored to the local population. The estate is comprised of investments, real estate, and holdings, which have been divided up between family members. He was absolutely wonderful. We sat down with Bob to ask him about his decision to join Gensler from Disney, and to take a deeper dive into the idea of storytelling through immersive experiences and why the physical experience of our buildings and cities is more important now than ever before. In much the same vein, the Disneys America team engaged historians and Smithsonian experts, with the plan to include iconic American artifacts from the Smithsonian and other museums as part of the attraction experiences. color theory to the appropriate use of language. This all happened because we rented some successful traveling exhibits such as an early Jurassic Park and determined we should be making them ourselves, then travel them. ITVS CEO Sally Jo Fifer To Step Away From Documentary Nonprofit After More Than Two Decades At The Helm, Robbie Knievel Dies: Daredevil Motorcycle Showman & Son Of Evel Knievel Was 60, Universal Planning Permanent Horror Experience In Las Vegas Based On Its Parks Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Building New Theme Park For Families & Young Children In Frisco, Texas, George MacKay, Fan Bingbing, Joan Baez Movies Added, Sony Shopping Craig Ferguson-Hosted Syndicated Late-Night Talker For Fall, Fantasy Novel Momo Getting English-Language Film From Leading German Duo, HBO Max EMEA Programs Boss Antony Root To Retire. People want experiences they can do with other people. Hes so well-suited to lead and organize and cast a group of people to do something, no matter the size of the project., Rick Rothschild, Chief Creative at FAR Out! Whenever we do somethingit might be adventure, it might be fantasy, but its always in the service of great storytelling and fun. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joe Kleiman is News Editor for InPark Magazine. We had Brian Edwards and Roberta Perry of ETI working with us. If you want to see Weis in action, along with other Imagineers, be sure to watch The Imagineering Story on Disney+! For media inquiries, email var z='zx2e35dace6537df39b14527b6',s=document.getElementById(z),c=document.createElement('span');c.innerHTML=(function(a,b){var i,o='';for(i=0;i