Dan Gross/The Gazette The fate of the Comsat Corp. building in Clarksburg is in debate. A developer wants it demolished and others want it designated historic.

The commission is considering whether to designate the building and part of its campus as historic and protect them from demolition and heard testimony on the issue at a March 9 hearing.

Commissioners were skeptical of arguments presented by the current owner LCOR that the building is not historic, but sympathetic to arguments about the financial burden preserving the building and its setting will cause.

LCOR representatives said the Comsat building and its 230-acre campus is just one of many technology buildings in Montgomery County.

Historic Preservation staff disputed that assertion. Staff asked the commission to preserve the building and a suitable amount of its campus. The interior of the building is not historic and could be modified for other uses, according to staff.

"We're here to adamantly oppose any historic preservation designation on our property," said Michael Smith, vice president of LCOR, a Berwyn, Pa.-based firm.

LCOR bought the Comsat site $45.5 million in 1997. It leased the building back to Comsat Corp. and its successor, Lockheed Martin, for 10 years and prepared plans to develop the property.

It wants to tear down the building and build a mix of townhouses, apartments, retail buildings and offices on the campus, all in accordance with the 1994 Clarksburg Master Plan.

The 1994 Clarksburg Master Plan envisioned a mix of employment and residential uses on the 230-acre property if COMSAT ceased operation. The Master Plan calls for a Corridor Cities Transitway stop on the Comsat property.

LCOR wants to put a vibrant mix of housing and employment on the site, Smith said.

Preserving the "fundamentally inefficient" building and enough of the surrounding campus to preserve the setting will have a "devastating impact on investment," Smith said.

"I think it is the essence of poor planning to now designate this building and to establish an environmental setting that frustrates the clear planning and development objectives the County Council established in the Clarksburg Master Plan for this property," said Stephen P. Elmendorf, of Linowes and Blocher, LCOR's lawyer.

Daniel Koski-Karell, a cultural anthropologist, presented a 20-page report to the commission on behalf of LCOR asserting the building was not designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli and therefore not worthy of historic designation.

He called the building the Lockheed-Martin building to disconnect it from the important early space work done by COMSAT. He argued the building would not be important if people did not believe Pelli designed it. The building was designed early in Pelli's career, Koski-Karell said, and he was a mid-level manager who was just part of a team.

"Cesar Pelli believes he designed this building," countered Kathie Hulley, chair of the Clarksburg Civic Association planning committee.

Pelli sent four boxes of documents to the Historic Preservation Commission and wrote a letter in support of its preservation.

"I expect Pelli to come and speak at some point during the process," said Joey Lampi, historic preservation planner.

She added the building is known to everyone as the Comsat building.

In February the commission heard arguments from architecture teachers and the community on the importance of the 36-year old building.

Lampi said the building meets six of nine criteria for historic designation.

She said it has character, exemplifies a cultural, economic, social and political heritage of the county, is distinctive in characteristic type, represents the work of a master, possesses high artistic value and presents a familiar visual feature of the county by being one of the most easily identifiable buildings along the Interstate-270 corridor.

The 1994 master plan was written when Comsat Corp. was still an active business. The company was sold to Lockheed Martin in 2000, which has sold off much of the pieces of the company.

"Nothing in the master plan indicated removal of the building was anticipated," Lampi said.

The building is one of the earliest works by Pelli, who also designed National Airport as well as what was the tallest building in the world when it opened in 1998, Petronas Towers in Malaysia.

University of Maryland professors Isabel Gournay and Mary Corbin Sies nominated the building for inclusion in the National Registry of Historic Places for county historic designation. Twenty-five professors from the university's School of Architecture sent a letter supporting the historic designation. Some 67 former Comsat employees signed a petition to save the building.

It has an aluminum and glass exterior and is organized internally along a central spine with wings. The building's most significant façade is along I-270, Gournay said.

Native trees were used to give the impression the building is a "machine in the garden" Gournay said.

Staff recommended preserving enough of the building's setting to maintain the view from I-270. Elmendorf fears the staff wants to preserve nearly 40 percent of the campus.

"The planning vision cannot and will not occur with the proposed designation and environmental setting," he said.

Commissioners asked the staff to return April 13 with options for preserving less of the surrounding setting.

"We really need to focus on what's really important," said Commissioner Jeff Fuller.