HPD argued that variance would avoid demolition of 1905 school building. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development, owner of 217 West 147th Street, a 29,975-square-foot lot in Harlem, proposed to convert a vacant school into a 56-unit residential building with a community facility space in the cellar. The school, constructed in 1905 and declared obsolete by the Board of Education in … <Read More>