The Galloway School brought its students, faculty and staff back under one roof this week, cutting the ribbon on a transformed Chastain Park campus anchored by a new 65,000-square-foot academic building called Canopy House. The October 19 celebration ended more than two years of a split campus and closed a chapter on one of Buckhead's more contentious preservation battles, since Canopy House now stands on the site of the demolished 1911 Gresham Building.
According to Fulton Neighbor, the ribbon-cutting was followed by a student celebration featuring remarks from Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and a procession of seniors walking alongside kindergarteners. Dickens told the crowd that Atlanta looks to students to be trailblazers who bring joy, wonder and hard work to the city and world, the outlet reported. Canopy House houses modern science labs, flexible classrooms and a library designed for quiet study and collaboration, while the broader campus now includes an expanded courtyard with outdoor dining areas, 14 gathering nooks and shared spaces that will once again host graduation ceremonies.
A Deliberate Nod to What Came Before
Canopy House's facade was designed to reflect the look of the original Gresham Building, and builders incorporated salvaged doors as wainscoting and reclaimed bricks in fireplaces throughout the new structure, per the same account. The Gresham Building dated to 1911 and originally served as the Fulton County Almshouse for impoverished residents before educator Elliott Galloway converted it into a school in 1969, according to Preservation Magazine. That history is part of why the building's 2024 demolition drew sustained public pushback before Canopy House ever broke ground.
The Galloway School secured a National Register of Historic Places listing for the Gresham Building back in 2014, but as SaportaReport has detailed, federal register status carries no statutory protection against owner-initiated demolition absent municipal landmark status. Preservation groups including the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation pushed back for months, and an alumni petition opposing the demolition gathered more than 2,000 signatures before the building came down in August 2024.
How the Rezoning and an Alternative Design Fell Away
The fight played out in Atlanta's municipal process as well. Neighborhood Planning Unit A voted 43 to 28 against Galloway's rezoning request in August 2024, but the Atlanta City Council overrode that outcome the following month, approving a Special Public Interest district rezoning in a 10-2 vote, SaportaReport reported. Earlier that year, a Galloway alumnus and developer had submitted an alternative $33.8 million design meant to retain the Gresham Building's historic shell, but school leadership rejected it as insufficient for modern classroom needs, according to Buckhead.com.
The eventual master plan carried an overall budget of $35 million, covering Canopy House's construction along with renovations to the Early Learning Sims Building and the ML Arnold building, per The Galloway School. The school selected Atlanta-based Cooper Carry to design the campus master plan and Canopy House, partnering with Winter Construction as general contractor. Galloway's campus spans 8.2 acres in Chastain Park, where school leaders negotiated height restrictions and traffic planning with surrounding civic groups.
New Leadership, Familiar Mission
Head of School Amir Farokhi, a 1996 Galloway graduate, said the new spaces support student-centered experiential education and deep learning, Fulton Neighbor reported. Farokhi spent nearly eight years on the Atlanta City Council representing District 2 before stepping down in summer 2025 to lead his alma mater — he was the first Iranian-American elected to public office in the American South, according to the Atlanta City Council. His resignation prompted the council to expedite the process of filling his vacant seat, as Hoodline reported on the District 2 race last year. Farokhi succeeded Dr. James Calleroz White, who led Galloway from 2018 until mid-2025 before departing to lead a private school in New Jersey.
Koboi Simpson, chair of the Galloway Board of Trustees, said the investment gives students room to learn and grow together and thanked supporters for making the homecoming possible, per Fulton Neighbor. The school, founded in 1969 by Elliott and Kitty Galloway and Ross Arnold, was built on the belief that learning should be both challenging and joyful, with Elliott Galloway emphasizing relationships between students and teachers alongside the development of curiosity and self-discipline. Galloway maintains those founding principles across its program from early years through college preparation, according to a news release cited by the outlet.
What Students Study Now
Today the school serves roughly 750 students from age 3 through 12th grade, with small classes and an eight-to-one student-to-faculty ratio. Students study science, technology, humanities and the arts, and can take Advanced Placement courses and electives including polymer chemistry, biomimicry and music production. Galloway also runs an annual excursion program for high schoolers that includes several weeks of hands-on study in Atlanta and around the world, often with a service component; recent trips have explored ruins in southern France, urban park planning, art and culture in Prague and Berlin, renewable energy and agricultural sustainability.
Families curious about the rebuilt campus will get a chance to see it firsthand at an open house scheduled for November 14 from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Prospective families can explore the campus and meet faculty during the event, and registration is available through the school's website.
