One public school in Atlanta, which opened in 2013 and carries a $147 million price tag, is the most expensive school in Georgia.

North Atlanta High School in Buckhead is 11 stories tall and was created out of a refurbished IBM office building. From the classrooms and cafeteria, students can see parts of the Atlanta skyline.

Atlanta bought the land in 2011 for about $56 million, and school officials originally planned to spend another $70.9 million turning the sprawling 56-acre property into a school.

"It's safe to say there isn't another school like this in the nation," Bob Just, head of K-12 education for Cooper Carry, the lead architect group on the ambitious project, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The student body population consists of 1,710 students and the 2015 average SAT score was 1414, about 22 points higher than the state average.

Students have access to a reading lounge, a media center, a science laboratory and an expansive cafeteria with a grill and a smoothie station.

Impressive floor-to-ceiling windows line every wall, giving visitors sweeping vistas stretching from Vinings to Buckhead.

Oh, and it's built on a lake.

Read more:

About the Author

Keep Reading

President Donald Trump hands a pen to professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau after Trump signed an executive order restarting the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools as Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, from left, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Vice President JD Vance watch, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Credit: AP

Featured

The International Paper plant closures will affect 1,100 hourly and salaried workers in Savannah (pictured here), neighboring Port Wentworth and Riceboro, located about about 45 minutes down the Georgia coast from Savannah. (Blake Guthrie/AJC)

Credit: Blake Guthrie