When Comsat Laboratories opened in Clarksburg in 1969, residents thought the modernistic building at the end of Montgomery County's Interstate 270 technology corridor looked like something from outer space.

One of the first buildings designed by internationally renowned architect Cesar Pelli, it has an aluminum and glass exterior and is organized internally along a central spine with wings.

Looking at it now shows the model for Reagan National Airport, another Pelli-designed building.

"It's a first early work, experimental but successful, of a modern master architect -- now one of the best-known architects in the world," said Isabelle Gournay, professor of architecture at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Today, a battle over the survival of the one-time cutting edge building has been joined. Gournay and others want to save it; its owner, LCOR Inc., the Berwyn, Pa., real estate and development giant, wants to raze it and build housing to meet the seemingly insatiable demand for residential properties in Montgomery County.

Privately held LCOR, which has an office in Bethesda, has a commercial and residential portfolio that includes about $7.7 billion of developments either completed, under construction or in pre-development. The company is developing the White Flint Metrorail station mixed-use development in North Bethesda. Other projects in the Washington, D.C., area include the $885 million U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's consolidated headquarters in Alexandria, Va. LCOR has developed more than 20,000 apartments and more than 14 million square feet of office space nationally.

Gournay and a colleague, Mary Corbin Sies, an associate professor in the American studies department at the University of Maryland, College Park, want to block LCOR's plans for the Comsat building. They are nominating the building for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. On Nov. 1, they also nominated the building for county historic designation.

The Comsat building "is the first example of high-tech architecture in the United States I can recall," Gournay said.

Pelli's use of aluminum panels was a European style new to the United States, she said. The building had no central organization as was the style at the time, but was built with a spine to accommodate expansion. The addition of a cafeteria and four-story attachment in the 1980s did not alter the basic footprint of the building.

"The building was supposed to expand and change over time," Gournay said.

The building earned Pelli a number of awards and more work, she said. In 1998 Pelli designed the tallest building in the world -- the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.

Comsat Laboratories was the most northern building along I-270. It's most significant façade faces I-270, Gournay said.

"It's an early example of architecture meant to be seen from the highway," Gournay said.

The details remind Gournay of an ocean liner, "I think they're pretty swanky," she said.

The building's design and address reflect the satellite work done inside.

Comsat was created by Congress in the Communications Act of 1962 to create a global telecommunications satellite network and advance the U.S. mission in space.

Its address is 22300 Comsat Drive because 22,300 is the distance in miles for a satellite to be located above the equator and to appear to stand still in the sky or be geosynchronous.

The United States launched Comsat's first satellite, Early Bird -- also called Intelsat I -- in 1965. It could handle 240 phone calls or one black-and-white television channel. It had a design life of 18 months. By contrast, Intelsat IV, launched in 1971, could handle 4,000 telephone calls, color television and had a seven-year design life.

Comsat was a special place to work.

"People who came there were very much interested in the frontiers of science," said Mike Onufry of Clarksburg, a former Comsat employee.

Comsat received an Emmy award for developing small terminals for satellite newsgathering activities, Onufry said.

"We did R&D in this building, built components, tested things," said Steve Teller, a former Comsat employee who is helping preserve Comsat's records.

The list of Comsat Laboratories' accomplishments is extensive. Onufry knows of more than 300 patents developed at Comsat, including the nickel hydrogen battery. The battery was first flown during the Intelsat V program.

The nickel hydrogen battery was a substantial improvement over the existing nickel cadmium battery, more than doubling satellite batteries' lifetime, from up to seven years to 15 years.

The Comsat building was organized with three separate research wings, which included central core lab space, surrounded by the offices of the laboratory's staff. The opposite side of the main corridor included a state-of-the-art plating facility, a machine shop, a clean room facility and a state-of-the-art environmental test facility.

The test facility included a large thermal vacuum chamber to test how circuits worked in the vacuum of outer space; a large vibration shaker to test if components could withstand temperature variations and the motion on the trip to outer space; and an Anechoic chamber to test antennas and circuits. The facility also included smaller vacuum chambers and load test equipment.

An oversized freight elevator carried satellites to the roof for testing. Today, displays of the battery work, microelectronic circuits and satellites line the central corridor.

Comsat was a private company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda bought Comsat in 2000 and began dismantling the company. Much of the work done by Comsat is now performed by former Comsat scientists working for other firms or as independent contractors in the building. Lockheed also still uses the building. Its lease on the building and 203 acres of the property runs for three more years, said Michael J. Smith, LCOR vice president.

Comsat sold the building and 230-acre campus to LCOR seven years ago.

It has filed a request to rezone the property, demolish the laboratory and construct a mixed-use development on the property, according to Gwen Wright, historian with the Maryland National Park and Planning Commission.

"We're still in the process of formulating our plans," Smith said, adding that LCOR is seeking county approval to rezone 23 acres adjacent to the Comsat parcel for townhouses.

The Comsat parcel "is far removed from that," he said.

As long as enough green space is left around the building to preserve its pristine look, development at a distance does not detract from the Comsat building, Gournay said.

Kathie Hulley, chairman of the Clarksburg Civic Association planning committee, also would like to see the building saved, and put to good use for the community.

"My view is, it would be very nice to have another significant building than the jail" in Clarksburg, Hulley said.