Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Janiel Adames | The newly outfitted Space Systems Academic Group laboratory at Naval Postgraduate...... read more read more
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Naval Support Activity Monterey (NSAM) has just completed a four-year renovation of Bullard Hall, opening the door to a new chapter of modernization at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS).
A ribbon-cutting ceremony at the fully renovated Bullard Hall, May 5, officially marked the reopening of the completely transformed, state-of-the-art scientific education and research facility. Bullard Hall is the first building completed as part of a full facilities modernization plan for the NPS campus and serves as a key benchmark for additional efforts.
“This renovation is the first step in a broader vision — an ongoing modernization plan that will see our existing buildings here on base transformed into world-class academic facilities, ensuring that NPS remains at the forefront of national defense education and research,” said NSAM Commanding Officer U.S. Navy Capt. Robert Smith.
Originally opening its doors in 1956 and last renovated in the 1970s, Bullard Hall was named in honor of the late Rear Admiral William H.G. Bullard, one of the pioneers in the Navy on the advancement of radio communication. Long overdue for an upgrade, U.S. Navy Capt. Cathy Eyrich, the executive officer of Naval Facilities Command (NAVFAC) Southwest was on-hand to celebrate the milestone.
“It was a team effort,” said Eyrich. “NAVFAC Southwest is fortunate to be working with professionals from the installation, contractors, and NPS to transform this mid-century era building into what you see now behind me – a world-class facility to support NPS’ education mission.”
NPS President, retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau, emphasized the significance of the day but also the way ahead in her remarks before the leaders gathered to cut the ribbon and officially reopen the building for its eager faculty and students to reoccupy.
“I am very grateful for the faculty, the administrators, and the NAVFAC experts for thinking about the future of the Navy at NPS,” said Rondeau. “The modernization of the entire campus will show a different way of thinking and learning together and partnering with industry that has never been done in the past. This renovation of Bullard Hall sets the stage for the start of our important future, and further investment in NPS capability to develop our warfighters and innovative warfighting solutions.”
The renovation project began in 2021. Since then, virtually every aspect of the building has been updated: new flooring, walls and ceilings; new plumbing and electrical systems, new HVAC and ventilation.
“While certain historical details were preserved, the aesthetics are strikingly different with a new industrial style,” she added. “When you walk in, it’s like walking into a completely different building. It’s really nice looking,” noted U.S. Navy Cmdr. Lindsay Draper, modernization project manager.
The new Bullard Hall is home to NPS Space Systems Academic Group (SSAG) and Systems Engineering (SE) department. From the faculty and student perspective, the renovation opens new horizons in teaching, learning, research and innovation. Classrooms now include flexible technology for enhanced education both in-resident and distance learning. Labs have been completely modernized with emphasizing both capability and capacity. Classified instruction and work areas have been added, as have new collaboration spaces to spark innovative ideas.
“Being able to move back into Bullard has been a welcome change,” said SSAG interim chair Dr. Wenschel Lan. “Having everyone, staff and faculty, in the same building again has already made a noticeable difference in achieving our teaching and research objectives in the SSAG. We’re very much looking forward to running labs and performing research in a bigger, modernized space, which will enhance our ability to deliver high-quality, hands-on education to our students.”
After the ribbon cutting, Lan led participants on a tour with her colleagues and Dr. Oleg Yakimenko, Chair of the SE department. The two showed visitors newly outfitted labs for space vehicle design and NPS’ venerated CubeSat program, the latest of which was launched aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Jan. 14 2025.
The SE department and SSAG often collaborate on interdisciplinary work, which includes model-based systems engineering and building digital twins of future space capabilities and existing Navy satellite communications systems that can be used in wargaming efforts.
Like any major renovation, Bullard Hall renovation was not without its challenges. Draper and the facilities team embraced each and worked through the difficulties, common in construction projects, and believes the final result was well worth the wait.
“This is the first building to be renovated, and the future buildings will not have those same pains,” she said. “Moving forward, the process will be streamlined; lessons learned are insights gained for the next project.”
“Bullard Hall is the flagship, the new standard for what the buildings here are going to look like, should look like, and need to look like,” Draper continued. “It provides a North Star for the transformation of the entire campus.”
U.S Navy Cmdr. Mike Moran is an NPS alumnus and the program officer for Physics and Space Systems coordinating incoming students from the fleet and overseeing current student progress. He now works in Bullard Hall and affirmed the difference is beyond esthetics, recalling when he was a student taking classes and researching in Bullard Hall years ago, and was excited to see the changes to this facility.
“The students are going to benefit from the opportunity to work in these new labs and classrooms – there is some truly remarkable work being conducted here by some of the brightest officers from multiple services,” said Moran. “An added bonus with this building design is that so many of our professors and supporting staff will be working together in one contiguous area, that it will enable us to connect even more deeply on complex projects and strengthen the community.”
Bullard Hall also serves as the NPS flagship in a different way: it is the first building to have its “digital twin” created.
A Laser Imaging, Detection, and Ranging (LIDAR) scan was done to capture every inch of the building as well as every aspect of its plumbing, electrical, and ventilation systems. This scan also provided a great way for those unable to attend to explore Bullard Hall virtually.
The benefits of a digital twin are numerous, including AI-driven predictive maintenance, energy optimization, space utilization, and modeling “what if” scenarios like fire evacuation or HVAC failure.
“This digital twin of Bullard Hall provides a virtual walkthrough capability that can support security, maintenance, and operations of the building moving forward with high resolution data and a visual reference for the entire structure,” said Perry McDowell an NPS faculty associate working in modeling and simulation. “The data from this scan will be also loaded into the NVIDIA Omniverse platform, supporting collaborative student projects on applications of that technology to meet a variety of naval needs from training to wargaming.”
As NPS continues its modernization plan and additional revamped buildings come online, their digital twins will form a virtual model of the campus, yielding an interactive, dynamic view of its interdependent systems – a first for NPS and the Navy.
The modernization plan calls for six building renovations to take place over the coming years. Modernization is fundamental to enhancing the core mission of NPS, and complements the goal for adding a new facility to house the Naval Innovation Center (NIC) purposefully designed to rapidly prototype and quickly field defense applications of emerging technologies.
With the contract awarded on April 7, 2025, Halligan Hall is expected to begin construction in late 2025 with Spanagel Hall and other academic buildings to follow. The NPS campus is on track for full transformation by the early 2030s.
Like Bullard Hall, the last time these buildings – core to NPS’ educational and research mission – were updated was during the 1970s. Their innovative renovations will further enable NPS to uniquely develop tomorrow’s defense leaders in modern and technologically relevant facilities, according to Tim Wright, NPS facilities director.
“Modernization for NPS facilities allows flexibility to adapt to future needs and an updated utilities systems for the base that can handle future demands,” Wright said.
This modernization program is central to NPS’ Vision and Strategic Framework. The revamped facilities are critical to the institution’s ability to combine graduate education, research and innovation to generate intellectual leadership and technological advantage for the future force.
Ultimately, the human element is the decisive difference in warfare. NPS is valued for developing technologically competent leaders able to outthink adversaries, lead, and command effectively in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Joint Force.
“The campus transformation is all in support of not only graduating students but giving them the resources to work on innovative projects, to work with industry, and to work with actual Fleet-identified problems,” Rondeau said. “This is absolutely critical to keep the teaching, research, learning, up to speed and support the Fleet’s needs, and we are grateful for all of the support from Navy senior leadership and teamwork to make this happen.”
• See it for yourself! Check out this 3D digital twin of the all-new Bullard Hall: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=N51d9iaB2h7
| Date Taken: | 05.08.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2025 19:32 |
| Story ID: | 497456 |
| Location: | MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 69 |
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