Dr. Gerald R. Boarman Discovery Center, The Bullis School

Lead Designers Francesca Bettridge, Michael Hennes, Jeff Hoenig

Entry Description

The Bullis School’s LEED Silver Discovery Center is the nucleus of a school that links academic disciplines through technology and flexible learning strategies. The lighting design reflects these ideas, emphasizing transparency, innovation, and versatility.
The lighting gives the Center a strong presence after dark, through the careful consideration of key architectural elements: the uplit limestone wall at the entry, the luminous glass band at the crown and the glow from the building’s interior.
Throughout the project, the lighting elements are apparent yet seamlessly detailed into the architecture, creating an integrated whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. In the multi-purpose room, color-changing, vertical LED fin fixtures align precisely with the reveals between wall panels. In the Telepresence Room, staggered, surface mounted fixtures accentuate the honeycomb pattern of the acoustic tile ceiling. In the Innovation Lab, circular acoustic “clouds” act as large reflectors for the color-changing, direct/indirect pendants suspended below them.
The Center’s lighting provides an imaginative response to the building’s architecture and the school’s innovative philosophy.