City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Education

Telephone: (404) 253-1300

Address: 1600 Peachtree St. NE

Description: In 2005, the Atlanta College of Art was merged with the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and moved to a new campus in the former Equifax Building, 4 blocks north of its former home in the Woodruff Arts Center. Like the original SCAD, founded in Savannah in 1978, the Atlanta campus trains students in the visual and performing arts, building arts, and architecture. The school offers 20 degree programs and various certificates and has proven to be immensely popular. Their facilities include well-equipped classrooms, multiple galleries, computer labs, a library, photography darkrooms, printmaking and sculpture studios, bookstore, dining hall, fitness center, swimming pool, and two residence halls. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni also can sell their work through the SCAD retail store and gallery.Also like the original, one of Atlanta SCAD’s missions is restoring endangered historical buildings. It completely renovated the abandoned Queen Anne–style, 1880s Peters Mansion, a National Historic Landmark on Ponce de Leon Avenue that was formerly the Mansion Restaurant, into galleries and classrooms.