The Georgia Tech Foundation is the new owner of the historically significant Academy of Medicine building on West Peachtree in Midtown.

The Atlanta Medical Heritage is donating the 1941 building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, to the foundation because it was no longer able to keep up with its maintenance.

"We just ran out of gas," said Emory Schwall, president of the governing board. "We loved the building, but we knew it had serious problems. It needs a lot of work done to it."

The Atlanta Medical Heritage organization donated the building with a few conditions: that it continues to be called the Academy of Medicine; that it is preserved in a way that's consistent with its historical significance; and that the Academy's small medical museum continue to be maintained on the first floor.

John Carter, president of the Georgia Tech Foundation, said in an e-mail that the foundation is committed to preserving the building.

"We look forward to having the Academy, a building with major historical importance, as a part of our campus and anticipate it will play an important role in the lives of our students, faculty and staff as well as our community," Carter said. "The exact use will be determined in the near future."

This outcome is a contrast to the recent controversy with the Georgia Tech Foundation over the future of the 1927 Crum & Forster building on Spring Street. Georgia Tech had been seeking a demolition permit on that building, but in response to opposition from the community and preservationists, the city of Atlanta has denied the demolition permit.

Schwall said his organization sought an entity that would be committed to preserving the Academy of Medicine and would be able to put the building to use. He said the donation included only the building, which is on less than 1 acre. The Georgia Tech Foundation also has acquired the adjacent parking lot, according to Schwall.

"It's one of the last remaining gems we have left in this city," Schwall said. "It's an historical treasure."

The Academy of Medicine was designed by one of Atlanta's most revered architects, Philip Trammell Shutze. Coincidentally, Shutze was a part of the first entering class of architecture students at Georgia Tech in 1908.

Elizabeth Dowling, a professor in Georgia Tech's College of Architecture and the author of "American Classicist: The Architecture of Philip Trammell Shutze," said in a news release that the Academy of Medicine is "one of Atlanta's most finely designed public buildings." She said the building's design "reflects an appropriate character of elegant austerity for the post-Depression and pre-World War II era."

Since Georgia Tech is celebrating the centennial year of its architecture program, Dowling added, "it is especially meaningful that the Georgia Tech Foundation is ensuring the preservation of this important work by one of Georgia Tech's early graduates."

The building includes a 254-seat auditorium, a library and dining room. A major feature is the Czechoslovakian crystal chandelier that was part of the movie set of "Gone With the Wind." In fact, Schwall said that GWTW author Margaret Mitchell helped arrange for the chandelier to be placed in the Academy of Medicine.