Henrico Schools’ Living Building will open a year later than planned due to construction delays
Henrico County Public Schools' new environmental education facility, known as the Living Building, is now expected to open in fall 2027 instead of this December because of construction delays.
At a Henrico School Board meeting Sept. 24, HCPS Facilities Director Susan Moore said that the project would still fall within the $20.2-million budget set this past June (the original budget within the 2022 Bond Referendum was $13.3 million).
The project adheres to the “Living Building Challenge,” which promotes environmental sustainability and has certain requirements on what type of building materials can be used, where they are sourced from, and how they can be delivered to the construction site.
Through Oct. 25, Henrico County Public Schools is accepting name suggestions for its planned Living Building.
Due to inclement weather and delivery delays, HCPS will not receive the first delivery of steel for the building until late October, Moore said, which has pushed back the construction timeline. But students and teachers will still be able to visit portions of the site while construction is underway.
When completed, the 16,000-square-foot building will offer “much more than a traditional school facility,” including a “beautiful and striking” building exterior with floor-to-ceiling windows that showcase “stunning” views of the 60-acre Wilton Farm property in Varina, Moore said.
Designs for the area surrounding the Living Building on the Wilton Farm site in Varina. (Courtesy Henrico Schools)
The building will receive all of its electricity from rooftop solar panels and all of its drinking water from rainwater collected and purified on-site. The site also will include a small-scale wind turbine, a bioswale, composting toilets, an orchard, and other unique features.
“I think one of the greatest legacies of this project is not even the building. I think it may be what the building teaches us and how we build everything else after it,” said Varina District school board representative Alicia Atkins. “This vision is more than just teaching our children how to live on this planet. They are going to learn how to live with it.”
Along with using sustainable materials, HCPS will not need to remove any trees to construct the building because the site is located on a clearing.
HCPS will bring students of all grades on field trips to the building “pretty much every day” throughout the school year, said HCPS Director of Teaching & Learning Taylor Snow. Students will be able to explore the surrounding forest, creek, gardens, and Whale Lake while learning about ecology, energy, ecosystems, and sustainability.
Learning experiences will also involve the acknowledgement of the history of and injustices perpetrated against indigenous people and enslaved Black people on the site, Snow said. Wilton Farm served as a tobacco plantation in the 18th century and had the largest enslaved population in Henrico County. Prior to that, the area was an integral part of the Powhatan tribe.
All HCPS third- and sixth-graders will visit the Living Building for “common investigations” into ecology and environmental studies. Third-graders will participate in ecological journaling and “What’s Growing Now?” cooking labs while sixth-graders will collect water data while paddling on Whale Lake and investigate the sustainable systems of the building.
The building will also be the home of Varina High’s Center for Environmental Studies and Sustainability, with half of the center’s students on-site every other day. New student internship courses will allow center students to help manage the learning experiences of third- and sixth-graders on the site.
For some students, visiting the Living Building could be their first introduction to a more natural landscape, providing opportunities they may not have outside of school, said Fairfield District school board representative Ryan Young.
“I started thinking about some of the students in my district, particularly students that live in apartments. They may love nature, but they don’t have backyards, they don’t get to go outside anymore. So I think we’re opening up opportunities for kids,” he said. “Eventually we’re going to see an increase in enrollment at [Varina High’s environmental center], and it’s going to be because of the exposure that we’re providing to these kids who never saw a career in this field.”
HCPS will have “dedicated maintenance staff” from the facilities department who are certified to conduct water testing assigned to the building and on site every day, said Moore.
Through Oct. 25, HCPS is accepting name suggestions for the new building from the public. On Nov. 12, the school board will officially vote on the building’s name.
The school board recently approved changes to the division’s school naming process that encourage names relating to geographical features or local and cultural history rather than the names of individuals.
