The Camins group subsequently put the building

the Camins group subsequently put the building “We started the renovation work, we did some of the bathrooms Canadiens and updated the lobby. But when the market softened and we couldn’t get the rent we needed, the renovation plan got put on hold. There was only so much we could do.”

Mr. Gehry was happy when the Camins group subsequently put the building in the market. And, he said, he was even happier when he learned that the Manhattan developer Richard Cohen (who was once married to the TV newscaster Paula Zahn) had decided to buy it. Mr. Gehry was at the Cohen-Zahn wedding in 1987, and he is now designing a sailboat for Mr. Cohen.

“I wouldn’t have done the building without Frank,” Mr. Cohen said. In 2007, his Capital Properties bought the building for about $57 million. Mr. Gehry could have cashed out. But Mr. Cohen asked him to remain in the partnership and offered to Canadiens double his share if he did. Mr. Gehry decided to double down.