Owings & Merrill to update the entire building

Owings & Merrill to update the entire building “when I mentioned Frank’s name.” A few months later, he said, Mr. Gehry Canadiens flew to Chicago. They were joined by the St. Paul people, and had “a nice little meeting” at which Mr. Gehry talked about wanting to preserve the building. “It was critical that Frank was involved,” he said. “That really helped solidify the deal.”

In 2005, a partnership led by Mr. Camins and Mr. D’Ancona paid $44.5 million for the building and gave Mr. Gehry a 2.5 percent stake.“He didn’t have to write a check,” Mr. Camins said. “We made him a partner because he brought the deal to us.”

But if the deal was lucrative for Mr. Gehry, it also led to disappointment. Instead of bringing in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to update the entire building, as Mr. Gehry had proposed, the Camins group began a piecemeal renovation. Mr. Gehry said he believed the superficial changes made the building — and him — look bad.