Gehry somewhat sanguine about losing Atlantic Yards: says Ratner was "fair and gentlemanly," but can't look at project "because I loved [it] so much"

From a 2/22/18 interview in the Commercial Observer by Alison Statement, Let’s Get Frank: Gehry on New York, LA and the Future of Design, subtitled "As he approaches his 89th birthday, the famed architect has no plans to slow down."

Q. You were working on Pacific Park [formerly Atlantic Yards] in Brooklyn originally, but that didn’t go forward. They switched gears. 

A. That didn’t go [forward] because it hit the recession. That’s a complication that has nothing to do with architecture. I don’t know what the economics of having a basketball team, basketball stadium are and the difficulty of building over the tracks, but the difficulties of that became exacerbated by the economic drop. They had to punt, as it were, and look for a different way. They were very polite to me. They were fair and gentlemanly about it. They brought in some local guys. 

Q. What do you think about the project as it stands? 

A. I haven’t seen it. I can’t do it because I loved that project so much. I’m sorry [laughs]. I’m happy that they did it, but…

Gehry sounds hurt, but not nearly as much as reported by Paul Goldberger in his Gehry biography, Building Art: "Frank was devastated by the news that the [arena] project was now going to be designed by another firm." (The arena was a product of Ellerbe Becket plus SHoP.)