Henderson was the general contractor and performed all site and utility work on the Grandy Village Learning Center (GVLC) project completed in 2010. The Center is a new, state-of-the-art multi-use facility on the Elizabeth River and has achieved United States Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED® Gold Certification. The 15,000-square-foot sustainably designed Center offers an expansive community room overlooking the riverfront, educational spaces, a maintenance/equipment facility, a wetlands pavilion, an observation pier with floating dock, and a wetlands trail.

Educational components of the facility include preschool classrooms used by Norfolk Public Schools and the STOP Organization’s Head Start Program, a wet classroom for school children to learn about river ecosystems, and an Aquatics Program with a canoe/kayak launch facility.

The building utilizes a geothermal heat pump system, a technology which relies primarily on the Earth’s natural thermal energy, a renewable resource, to heat or cool the facility. Structural insulated panels were incorporated and will lower heating and cooling costs, as well as add four inches of expanded foam on exterior walls. These panels were made by encasing a core of rigid foam plastic insulation between two structural skins of oriented strand board. Double-glazed low-E windows, which reduce heat loss but admit solar gain, and low VOC paints were also incorporated. Recycled materials were utilized during construction and 70 percent of all waste materials were recycled.

The Grandy Village Learning Center received an Award of Merit for Best Sustainable Design at the 2011 Hampton Roads Association of Commercial Real Estate (HRACRE) awards.