After more than three decades of creating, designing and developing some of Disney's most iconic projects, Bob Weis has found himself in a bigger sandbox: Leading the design of immersive experiences around the world for one of the top U.S. architecture firms.

Rather than create roller coasters, the former Disney executive will work with firm leaders to immerse visitors in a designed environment whether a building involves sports, mixed-use or offices in need of some other magic. That can mean finding ways to expand on the firm's past use of parks, artwork or media walls to create new encounters with commercial property.

"There seems to be a convergence happening around the idea of immersive experiences, which offer a shared sense of belonging," Weis told CoStar News. "All the great real estate corporate clients want to make it more about immersion and connecting with people and bring that vibrancy to the everyday, from retail and dining to health to office space to wellness."

Gensler, based in San Francisco, had revenue of $1.37 billion in 2021. That ranked it No. 1 on Architectural Record's Top 25 U.S. Architecture Firms of 2022. The firm, with 53 offices spanning Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and the Americas, has more than 4,000 global clients.

Weis got his start working on the Tokyo Disneyland park that opened in 1983 and he retired in January after a long career with the theme park operator. That included serving for nearly six years as president of Disney's Imagineering, the designer and builder of the company's theme parks, resorts, attractions and cruise ships worldwide.

He joined Disney in 1980 after graduating Cal Poly Pomona College with a degree in architecture and a minor in theater design.

Gensler is betting that demand will only grow for experiential elements in the wake of a pandemic that once sent workers home and changed how people think about their properties.

"We are in transformational times in real estate right now," Gensler Co-CEO Andy Cohen said in an interview. "We have worked with Bob and Disney on many projects and [since] COVID, all our clients and people in general are looking for immersive experiences. He's done this his whole career and I couldn't be more excited. Theme parks have experiences behind gates, now we can bring those experiences to everyday life."

During his tenure at Disney, Weis led more than 200 projects within theme parks, rides, resorts, cruise ships from the U.S. to Shanghai, Tokyo and Paris. Those projects had an aggregate capital value of more than $30 billion.

Employers who want workers to come back to the office need spaces that will entice them to do so, Weis said.

"People have become comfortable working in their own spaces. It takes more planning and more motivation to bring them out," he said. "Companies now have the opportunity to remind their collaborators why they work there in the first place. Give them reasons, with events, and connected experiences that foster a sense of creativity and collaboration again. There’s no sense in going out to do what you can do at home, but there’s a lot of excitement when it’s an experience you can do with co-workers and remember a shared story and mission."

Creating workspaces that integrate experiences into the office can be challenging, but it is doable, Weis said. For instance, offices that are part of mixed-use hubs offer workers “bite-sized experiences,” that are fun, changeable and often don’t need to be planned too far in advance, he said.

Weis' work, Gensler said, would build on what the firm has done at projects such as the transformation of AT&T's traditional headquarters complex in Dallas to a vibrant, walkable mixed-use development with restaurants, retail and office space with the buildings connected by a public park and featuring artwork and large media walls. The $100 million revamped campus in downtown Dallas, dubbed AT&T Discovery District, was designed to be a destination to thousands of employees and visitors.

Weiss said he took notice of the impact his immersive designs were having outside the Disney parks with patients and visitors of the Disney Children's Hospital program.

In that program, he helped add immersive designs and programs to hospitals to help comfort sick children. This included using wristbands with the favorite Disney characters to customize a patient's experience while at a hospital to adding virtual reality to play spaces. Texas Children's Hospital is one of those facilities that underwent a Disney immersion makeover.

In seeing the effect of how immersive design could help reshape the broader world, Weis said he couldn't pass up the opportunity to bring that emotional connection to other areas of the world. That helped shape a bigger conversation between Weis and Cohen, which began a year ago, about him joining Gensler.

Cohen has known Weis for more than 25 years, after meeting in Los Angeles at a design charrette. He told CoStar News he couldn't think of a better leader than Weis to direct the firm's effort in this area as its clients seek to add experiential offerings to their projects.

"Most real estate projects start with a big idea," Weis said, adding he wants to be part of that big idea from the early stage of a project because that "leads to everything else."

In Cohen's case, he's certainly seeing this with offices, where there's a flight to high-quality buildings and a shift in how workplaces need to be laid out to accommodate workers. He adds that this is the "end to ubiquitous space," in the workplace with companies wanting their space branded to reflect the emotion of an organization. There's also been a de-densification of the workplace with more "we space than me space," he said.

Weis has received multiple honors from the Themed Entertainment Association, including best new theme park for the Shanghai Disney Resort and the Buzz Price Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cal Poly School of Environmental Design, where earned an undergraduate degree in architecture.

Working at Gensler should rival his job at Disney, a company known for creating what it considers magical places.

"I'm in the ultimate sandbox to play where I'm suddenly connected to this seamless network of super-talented and committed people from all over the world working on projects that are connected to all these parts of our lives," Weis said. "That connection to me, in hearing about a project in Dubai or Paris, is meaningful."