Delay in Demolition of Old Lockheed Buildings Sought

A federal agency concerned with historic buildings has recommended that the Burbank Airport Authority stop tearing down old, mothballed Lockheed buildings until questions about their historic value can be cleared up.

But airport officials said they have no plans to heed the recommendation from the Washington-based Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, noting that they already have all the necessary clearances to destroy the buildings, which will be demolished to make way for a new airport terminal.

“They are misinformed,” said airport spokesman Victor Gill.

The latest in a long series of controversies over the construction of a terminal was welcomed by activist R.C. “Chappy” Czapiewski, a former teacher who for years has been arguing that the buildings--once home to top-secret aircraft--should be preserved.

Czapiewski’s efforts are so well known that when asked about the issue, a Lockheed Martin spokeswoman instantly said: “Sounds like Chappy’s been on the phone again.”

Czapiewski is unapologetic: “We won the Cold War because of what was created in these buildings,” he said.

Lockheed, which once employed as many as 90,000 people in Burbank, developed a host of famous, high-tech military planes at its legendary plant called the “Skunk Works,” including the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird and the Stealth fighter.

When the company moved out in the early 1990s, it left behind hundreds of acres covered with darkened World War II-era manufacturing plants--dirty beige monuments to the defense industry’s heyday.

Most of the buildings have been destroyed, and the airport plans to soon level one of the largest remaining, a dusty monolith known as building 309 / 310, a former assembly plant next to the runway.

In 1991, the California State Historic Preservation Office determined that the property is not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, Gill said.

But in a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration dated July 8, an advisory council official said the state may not have considered a full evaluation of building 309 / 310 and the other smaller buildings on the site.

The FAA is involved in the airport project because it is expected to pay for about 80% of construction costs for the new terminal.