SCAD-Atlanta acquires WXIA building

By Gray Chapman

SCAD recently purchased the former WXIA building on Peachtree Road, making it the fifth building to join the expanding SCAD-Atlanta campus. The building, located just two blocks from the SCAD-Atlanta main campus, will house SCAD-Atlanta’s film and digital media program, including animation, broadcast design and motion graphics, interactive design and game development, visual effects, and television production. The three-story, 60,000 square foot building was the former home of Atlanta‘s NBC television network affiliate. According to press materials, “In addition to multi-camera sound stages, the new site offers professional sound recording and mixing suites, editing rooms, a screening room, nearly two dozen classrooms, and set and prop fabrication studios.”

According to the press release, SCAD-Atlanta’s acquisition of the WXIA building was “to significantly expand the university’s film and digital media programs in the heart of Atlanta – the eighth largest media market in the United States.” SCAD’s film and digital media program has grown by over 500 percent in the past five years. The film and digital media program is growing with the addition of the new television production major, which will be available in fall of 2009.

Built in 1950, the building has been continuously updated over the decades to include the latest broadcast equipment. The building includes high-definition broadcast capability, with multiple-camera HD studios. Green-screen labs, one multi-level, will enable students to layer their film, television, animation, or gaming works. There is also an alternative methods lab, to be used for stop-motion, multi-plane and cutout animation. State-of-the-art game studies labs and sound design labs will also be available to students.