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Bright IDEA Lab Lights the Path for the Future
Students imagine their brightest futures in the
by Jessica Bliss
Notlong after the sun rose on a day in late January, a group of students stood in a hallway in the Upper School, their eyes trained on a set of doors that had been covered for the entire first semester.
What waited on the other side was a space for girls unlike any other in Nashville — the brand new Bullard Bright IDEA Lab. At 7:15 a.m., the doors swung open and Harpeth Hall students saw the space for the very first time. With its soaring ceilings, light-filled collaboration spaces, and unique design touches, students marveled at the newest place on campus for creativity and collaboration. “I give it 12 out of 10 stars,” junior Caroline Ford told senior Elizabeth Allen during a student Instagram story takeover to celebrate the event. “It’s an excellent space for students to be and the innovation and architecture behind it is unmatched.”
The location of the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab in the heart of the Hortense Bigelow Ingram Upper School makes it a truly ideal location for students to become inspired by the acronym IDEA, which stands for innovation, design, and education in action. Every day, students experience something new. They see the robotics team in action or find themselves inspired by a project underway using the power tools in the maker space. Groups of girls gather in the teaching kitchen to create surprise “thank you treats” for teachers. Global Scholars fill the common spaces with knowledge and energy
as they present their capstone projects, and a little farther down the hall, Middle School students film video projects in front of the green screen for a history presentation. “I don't think we can underestimate this idea of exposure,” Director of the Upper School Armistead Lemon said as the Bright IDEA Lab celebrated its grand opening. “Classrooms are wonderful incubators for ideas, but often we don't all have the chance to see what's happening inside them. The open, welcoming, and transparent nature of the lab's design is in some ways a pedagogical tool. “The space itself is also a physical bridge between the STEM and the humanities buildings, helping students intuit connections between the disciplines. For me, it is a space for students to see possibilities and dream future ones. The sky’s the limit.” It is everything Harpeth Hall’s founders could have hoped for and more.
Historic origins with a vision for the future
The legacy of the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab stretches back through the generations to the beginnings of The Harpeth Hall School. In 1951, after the Ward-Belmont school for young women closed, local community leaders organized to ensure that college-preparatory, all-girls education continued in Nashville. Among those leaders was George N. Bullard, whose daughter, Betty, had attended the prestigious Ward-Belmont. A businessman who grew up in Chicago, Mr. Bullard attended Vanderbilt University and helped establish a successful investment banking corporation in Nashville. Desiring a noteworthy education for his two daughters, he joined the group of parents in founding Harpeth Hall so that a school for girls was not lost to the community. On Sept. 17, 1951, the new Harpeth Hall campus opened with 15 faculty members and 161 students in grades 9-12. Among the new students was George’s youngest daughter, Dede Bullard ’53, who would be named the school’s second Lady of the Hall. A welcome addition to the Nashville community, the school quickly became established as a respected institution founded on the bold idea that girls deserved a future filled with possibilities and purpose. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bullard spearheaded the fundraising efforts for a gymnasium that would provide an indoor space for physical education. That space, which opened in 1953, became central to growing an athletics program for girls in the Title IX era, and later as an invaluable community and learning space for students. In 2022, the George N. Bullard Gymnasium, the second-oldest building on Harpeth Hall’s campus, transformed into the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab — a vibrant hub for learning, experimenting, and dreaming. “It’s on the cutting edge of where learning is going,” said Mr. Bullard’s grandson, Jack Wallace, whose family legacy at Harpeth Hall includes his three sisters, Anne Wallace Nesbit ’75, Elena Wallace Graves ’79, and Betsy Wallace Taylor ’80; his two daughters, Ansley Wallace Cire ’06 and Gray Wallace ’12; and his niece Dede Nesbitt Palmer ’06. “It will bring that space back to the center of the learning experience at Harpeth Hall.”
Senior Kate Stewart may know more about the aesthetics of the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab than any other student at Harpeth Hall. During her Winterim internship at architectural firm Orcutt | Winslow, she learned exactly what went into the detailed design of the school’s new space for student collaboration and innovation. “The architects wanted to highlight the transition between STEM and humanities and combine them in the space,” Kate said. “So there’s a lot of geometric shapes and there’s also a lot of flowing shapes to combine both forms of study.” From an orbiting art composition that increases its functionality by absorbing sound to the outlets built right into the couches, the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab features all the right touches to make the space welcoming and functional. The Bullard Bright IDEA Lab also is a place for connection. The student commons and loft space provide places for students to come together for a group study session, a game of chess, a club meeting, or just to relax, be themselves, and laugh with friends.
And that community feeling extends to our faculty, our families, and our graduates. The large, light-filled meeting spaces have hosted Harpeth Hall Parent Association events, Winterim for Adults classes, alumnae board meetings, and so much more. Visionary projects like this one move forward through the generosity of our community. The support of our donors helped bring the transformative $5.9 million project to fruition. The Bullard Bright IDEA Lab is the next step in the bold vision set by Mr. Bullard and board of trustees when they founded The Harpeth Hall School 70 years ago. Today, Harpeth Hall continues to innovate for the global community our girls will enter. The opening of the Bullard Bright IDEA Lab demonstrates the school’s commitment to be a place where every girl can imagine her brightest future. “It’s exciting,” Mr. Wallace said. “I’m really glad my grandfather’s name will continue to be part of the school’s, and that we can support the vision that he started in some small way.”
The Bullard Bright IDEA Lab experience
Student Commons The vibrant, light-filled area provides a vast space created for learning, experimenting, and dreaming, flanked by a beautiful art installation that ingeniously serves as a large acoustical piece. Loft Space Students and faculty gather for group study sessions or club meetings on the second floor, getting comfortable in the bright-colored couches or individual study carrels. Murals Designed and painted by Mary Stengel Bentley ’03, these creations in the student commons and rear stairwell inspire students to anticipate the mark they will leave on Harpeth Hall.
Project Rooms With a green screen and podcast equipment, students in the Middle School and Upper School bring their school projects to life by producing podcasts and videos in the recording room. Collaborative Learning Classrooms With study tables and whiteboard walls, students can work out complicated equations and sketch big ideas with classmates in a collaborative learning experience. Teaching Kitchen Featuring a moveable island and rolling supply carts for demonstrations and hands-on learning, this space is the perfect place for a Winterim for Adults class to take a cooking class and for students to prepare a meal for a Public Purpose project or combine ingredients for a chemistry experiment. Large Meeting Room Whether it is a board of trustees meeting, 8th grade career day, or AP tests, this 125-person gathering space with walls of foldable glass and myriad presentation screens brings people together. Robotics Lab Home to the building, coding, driving, and strategizing of Harpeth Hall’s World Championship-qualifying robotics team, the coolest feature in this room (other than a few new trophies) is the retractable lift. Students can lift robotics projects up toward the ceiling on the 12’ x 12’ platform, and then view it from the window in the loft.
Maker Space Walls of power tools and wide work benches invite students to transform ideas that incubate in the classroom into real-life objects through construction design.
