There was always an exchange of ideas. In this medium of immersive experiences, we want to break out of the screen and really envelop all the senses sight, smell, emotion, the feel all the things that can tell the story in physical ways that you will never forget. Learn more about his new role and his viewpoint on immersive experiences and why they are more important now than ever before. maybe Disney should just outsource that too, itll be cheaper? Were not directing you specifically one way or the other. HIs writing has also appeared in Sound & Communications, LF Examiner, Jim Hill Media, The Planetarian, Behind the Thrills, and MiceChat His blog, ThemedReality.com takes an unconventional look at the attractions industry. 20052023 JAK Schmidt, Inc. All rights reserved. He and his colleagues had brought museum exhibition techniques to the theme park. OLC had assembled some incredible talents During his time as president, more than 200 distinct projects were delivered, despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic. 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. is a vibrant place with a dynamic culture, and we knew we couldnt just bring CSI happened when Bob and I were in a cab from La Guardia to Top of the Rock. Imagineering Ambassador Bob Weis is retiring from Disney in January, wrapping a career that In this medium of immersive experiences, we want to break out of the screen and really envelop all the senses sight, smell, emotion, the feel all the things that can tell the story in physical ways that you will never forget. He stood up for what he thought was right. 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. To me, that is the magic of Disneylandthat people take their kids and want them to have the same experiences [that they had as children]. Let us know in the comments below! With Bob, you can change things and do things slightly differently. You are impacting how the conflict is resolved or how the art piece is accomplished. The former President of Walt Disney Imagineering Bob Weis is joining Gensler as a Global Immersive Experience Design Leader, according to a statement released by the firm. When we finished our trek, we found out it had been greenlit.. Theres this level of everyone being equal, no matter their experience or position. 2023 Gensler, All Rights Reserved Think of going to the theater, but instead of watching the play from your seat, you are part of the play. Bob Weiss is a Taurus and was born in The Year of the Horse Life by Tom Barnes, Communications Manager, Walt Disney Imagineering. The And it had a huge impact. 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. He was adroit with working with management, instead of bowing to it. I wrote the script for this, shares Russell. quote, were just getting started., Start planning your dream Disney Vacation This is why Gensler is so important in the development of immersive experiences. He cared about his people; people responded with devotion to him and the project as a result. I He has 25+ years management experience: in tourism, museums and attractions, in the giant screen industries and as a zookeeper. He felt that the museum industry couldnt make an exhibit about movie making where you actually didnt get to make a movie.. D23: Is there anything else you wanted to say to D23 Members and fans? There is such little time just to talk in our busy work lives, so I treasured these moments. Required fields are marked *. Later, when back at Walt Disney Imagineering to oversee the Shanghai Disney Resort, Weis invited Seruto to join WDI and executive produce the Treasure Cove area of the park, including its benchmark attraction, the award-winning Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure. While we have a long history of building Disneyland-style parks, we wanted to make this one unique and tailored to the local population. includes serving as president of Imagineering for nearly six years. One of the highlights of Weiss Top of the Rock was the ascent from a history gallery to the observation floors themselves. back you can see the things the way you saw them before. Under her Seruto & Company moniker, she would collaborate on four museum projects with Weis. Former President of Walt Disney Imagineering Bob Weis is joining Gensler as Global Immersive Experience Design Leader! December 17, 2021 by . But also, as Marty [Sklar] said, our theme parks are not museums. Throughout the experience, actual forensic investigators appeared on screen. looking forward to the next thing. In 1994 came the launch of Bob Weis Design Island, a boutique, themed entertainment design firm which was co-founded by Diane Fredel-Weis, who was instrumental in its success. Elevators from the 1930s were retrofitted with a transparent ceiling, on which video was projected telling the history of broadcasting, a tribute to Rockefeller Centers longtime tenant, NBC. The closest we got to civilization was a rental car that a crew member drove out to camp each night, full of replacement batteries for the equipment and a satellite phone. 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. In 2002, Viola led a group of more than twenty modern Americans on a horseback journey through the Idaho wilderness. Weis hired his longtime Imagineering collaborator Chick Russell, who had worked on both Disney-MGM Studios and Disneys America with him, as the writer on ACTION! Its exciting to think that we can create great stories that people can experience together in new ways and do them in the spaces Gensler already creates. There was an intro film that Bob shot in Morocco on the set of Kingdom of Heaven. It featured Ridley Scott, Orlando Bloom, even the costume designer., ACTION! Looking at the card he said and I will never forget it Now I know a lot more about you than when I walked in, and I could see he valued that I was also a fine artist, which meant a great deal to me. Museum designs and Documentaries.. We also had pre-produced B-Roll. So, theres this balance: How do you how do you keep the classic things that people remember but at the same time be constantly upping your game, making things better? We used the walls in the rooms, the furnishings, the trays on the hospital bed, the nurses uniform all the things we would have to create anyway for a hospital and we made them colorful, uplifting, and positive. He was absolutely wonderful. Before the move, Weis spent more than 30 years at Disney. And it was a joy to work with Leslie [Iwerks] on her documentary about Imagineering [The Imagineering Story, streaming on Disney+]. 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. 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. By using tools that had heretofore been traditionally limited to filmmaking and themed entertainment design, ACTION! Forty-two years after first joining Imagineering, Bob Weis has announced his retirement, it read. You have a real authentic impact on the experience. According to an interview on Genslers website, Weis cited the opportunity to apply his experience at Disney to the world at large: Genslers commitment to leading the future of design is perfectly aligned with my passion for developing unique, immersive experiences with a diversity of creative voices. A creative design force, his leadership and expertise in entertainment design will enhance the ways people interact with and thrive in the spaces and experiences we create around the world. When I was at Disney, we worked on hundreds of different projects, but theres one project that I think is an interesting example of the types of things we can bring to the many different types of spaces we design at Gensler. They worked beautifully together. Bob Weis Disney. Disneys America, as planned, would have had lands themed to the Civil War and World War II. exhibit] with Kurt Haunfelner. Your email address will not be published. Remember to sign in or join D23 today to enjoy endless Disney magic! He is inspirational, the best of the best in this business, but also so humble and just lovely to work with. Kurt Haunfelner had this to say: Ive known Bob as a friend and respected colleague for many years. recruiters came through from WED as Imagineering was known at the time. And once you see guests enjoying what you worked on, you 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. And then you see the public come in with such a sense of awe and wonder its very emotional to stand there and watch that. In addition to his theme park work, Weis has led influential projects in museums, science centers . as we embark on our next 70 years, I truly believe in Walts great was a traveling exhibit in two parts. We used real props from the studios, but more modern props for the time that our younger guests would relate to. At the time, I was working freelance TV and film in Orlando. People around the world have an expectation that cities and places are going to inspire us in some way and that theyre going to communicate to us in some way. 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. You would come up with something unique, and then be encouraged to do more. We have to keep moving forward. after a big project, remembering this always helped reenergize me and got me For more information about Bob Weis joining forces with Gensler, read this article on Fast Company or view our press release. So, this is a nice time for me, where a lot of these major projects are wrapping up in these next few months. 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.. Disney theme park projects around the globe over the span of five decades. At 45 minutes or an hour in a visit, an exhibit is considered to be a successful exhibit. I was brought onboard to produce the media for the show. We had to come up with over twelve hours of audio and six hours of video. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. We focus on bringing you all things fun so you can plan your theme park vacation, enjoy Disney at home, and more. They had a huge impact on the park and guided us on everything from When Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 the audience embraced it as their own and BW: Seeing the parks with people in them and seeing the way that people love the parkswhether its their first visit, their 10th visit, or their 100th visitis so inspiring to me and to all people who work or have worked in Imagineering. We did all the graphic and signage design for the exhibition. A former SEGD board member, she is a renowned specialist at graphic design and wayfinding and has applied her talents to several Weis projects, from various museum exhibits to Shanghai Disney Resort. It doesnt take much with sound effects and announcements to make it feel like youre under attack. Bob Weis net worth is $6 Million Bob Weis Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Bob Weis was born on November 14, 1947 in Germany. 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. Its always great working with Bob. The Science of Solving Crime. The exhibit took guests through the processes of forensic science, examining clues both at a crime scene and in a lab. Genslers commitment to leading the future of design is perfectly aligned with my passion for developing unique, immersive experiences with a diversity of creative voices. Battle Stations 21 was the final test to see if Naval recruits could stand up to rigors and real conditions at sea., We were at sea on a destroyer to film for a week Bob, myself, and six crew members, continues Steinouer. Bit by bit we made changes all across the park and by the time we were done, Disney California Adventure had really come into its own. And today, with the recent additions of Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxys Edge, Disneys Hollywood Studios is truly a peer to the other parks at Walt Disney World. Were really thankful to the fans because of the way that they love [the parks], but also because of the way we are able to learn from them by watching how they react to things. Remember to sign in or join D23 today to enjoy endless Disney magic! For Seruto, her projects with Weis often evoked personal experience and personal history. The second part of the exhibit was a soundstage letting guests be the cast and crew of their own film that they would make., Guests would produce a trailer for an adventure film. We had planned on exhibiting it in an Africa pavilion. Theres a hunger to try things, which is creating this beautiful point in time where people are trying things, but there arent a lot of rules or known best practices. Theres plenty in there that Marty wrote, and theres plenty of references to Walts philosophy in his first decade in this business. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. From the U.S. to Shanghai, Tokyo to Paris, Weis design and storytelling imprint has been indelibly left on theme parks, attractions and rides, resorts, and cruise ships. Whats unique about working with Bob is even then, in that point in time, he had a habit of being a leader, but allowing everyone who works with him to have equal standing. A computer program would cut this together. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern. Its good timing for me to think about wrapping up my assignment as well. At Top of the Rock, she would stand on the observation decks, staring at Ellis Island, recalling her father, an emigree from Sicily. As we explored ideas, it soon became apparent that this was bigger than just a pavilion it could be an entire park. Two years later, the entire museum building, with the exception of the museums IMAX theater, was razed to be replaced by a new multi-million dollar building with new exhibits. D23: You were indeed one of the kids once, since you once sold popcorn and ice cream at Disneyland. I think those fundamentals are still the same. We are thrilled that Bob is joining our global innovation design team, Gensler co-CEO Andy Choen said in a press release. The training staff would act like they were really at sea in these different situations. I was The parks have to have that kind of clarity, and I think thats a big hallmark of what Imagineering has done in all the parks. It really was a great way to learn from Disneyland. knew the shows executive producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. He trusted us enough to place us in self-sufficient pods to complete the project.. Its truly an exciting time., In 2022, Weis took on the role of Global Imagineering Ambassador, following in the footsteps of one of his mentors, Disney Legend and former WDI president Marty Sklar, the first to hold the ambassador title. Under the Fertile Films banner, Weis and Viola decided to make a documentary about Lewis & Clarks trek through the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho. Read our privacy policy, #91 Trending technology, risk and reward, #90 Branding + Licensing, AV Technology, Expo 2020 Dubai, #87 Spellbinding immersive digital environments, #84 Everything the industry has to offer, #68 Going Global: Technology on the International Stage, #67 Experience Design: Many Faces Many Places, #54 Waterparks, Zoos and Aquariums 2014, Screens to scenes: Christies visual technology. The firm already has such an incredible commitment to the cultural vibrancy of cities and the place where we live, work, and play. 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