NEW YORK—Frank Gehry will no longer be involved with building a new home for the Theater for a New Audience in the BAM Cultural District in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, but it's unclear whether the starchitect was aware of the change, the New York Times reports.

The theater's founder and artistic director, Jeffrey Horowitz, issued an announcement on Thursday that the project, whose original design was completed by Gehry and architect Hugh Hardy, necessitated a site change and would be continuing without Gehry. The statement cited Gehry's busy schedule and read, “Frank Gehry has said to us, ‘I’m sorry that I have to withdraw, but I’m a great fan of Hugh’s, and Theater for a New Audience is going to have a terrific theater.’ ”

Gehry, however, has told the Times that the change in plans is news to him. “I didn’t even know they were starting over again,” he said.

“He’s quite adequate for the job without me,” Gehry said of Hardy. “I would guess there are financial reasons for this.”

In response to Gehry's comment, Horowitz recounted to the Times a conversation he had with the architect, and the theater provided copies of its correspondence with Gehry's assistant.

The original plan was for the new theater, a home for an Off Broadway company specializing in Shakespeare and classical drama, to be completed within two years of the design's unveiling in 2005. That design has been changed; the building will remain on the same lot between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street but will face Ashland Place to make way for a developer's tower. It is now expected to break ground in spring 2009.