Advocates Fight to Save Groundbreaking Building

The Comsat Corp. building near Clarksburg opened in 1969. It could be razed to make way for development. (Montgomery County Historical Society)

Can a building that's less than 40 years old be a piece of history? Preservationists hope the County Council will agree that the Comsat Corp. building is.

If the building, a low-rise, tubular, glass-and-aluminum structure on 30 acres along Interstate 270 near Clarksburg, is designated as historic, it will be protected from demolition.

Designed by architect César Pelli, it may be torn down as part of plans by Lcor Inc. of Berwyn, Pa., to build 1,500 apartments and townhouses, up to 1 million square feet of office space and shops and restaurants.

Lockheed Martin Corp., which bought the satellite company in 2000 and later sold it, has a lease on the building until 2007. Lcor executives have said it would be costly to save the Comsat building and incorporate it into the development.

There is disagreement about why the council is not addressing the issue in the two weeks remaining on its calendar before members depart to campaign for the Sept. 12 primary.

Council President George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) said the council has no plans to take up the issue because the Planning Board defeated a proposal for historic status and there is no recommendation pending before the council.

But Wayne Goldstein, president of two local civic groups -- the Montgomery Civic Federation and Montgomery Preservation Inc. -- is determined to call attention to what he says is one of Montgomery County's few architectural gems.

He says the council's refusal to take up the matter is at odds with the law and land-planning traditions in the county. By his count, the council should have decided whether to review the matter by June 24 -- 45 days after a county executive office evaluation, which he said county code requires.

Michael E. Faden, the council's senior legislative attorney, has a different interpretation. He advised the council that it does not have to hold a hearing, vote or review the matter in the wake of last year's Planning Board vote, even though the county's Historic Preservation Commission recommended the historic designation.

The council has the final word on the building's status -- unless the issue winds up in court. A decision by the council to take no action means no historic designation.

Pelli, 79, who designed Reagan National Airport and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is a former dean of the School of Architecture at Yale University.

Speaking last month in Rockville about uses for the building, Pelli said it was one of his most influential works. "It would be criminal to tear it down," he said.

"I am speaking about one of my babies," he said by phone from his office in New Haven, Conn. "It is a beautiful structure and sits very gracefully on the landscape. It is one of the earliest American buildings that expressed that kind of beauty," said the Argentina-born Pelli.

Leventhal said he believes the building is "architecturally significant." He hopes the landowner and the community will find a "reasonable compromise," such as preserving part of the building. "I would like for a good outcome to come from discussions, and I have reason to think that will occur."

Staff writer Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.