The controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn might not happen, architect Frank Gehry said in an interview with the Architect's Newspaper published yesterday.

Speaking of unrealized commissions, Gehry said of the massive $4.2 billion complex, "I don't think it's going to happen."

But according to a report in WNYC, Gehry has released a statement saying that his words were misconstrued and that he hopes the project will still happen.

The complex was to include a basketball arena and five towers; a second phase of 11 towers, affordable housing units, and public areas was in the works but never finalized. In November, Gehry laid off all two dozen employees working on the project.

The project's developer, Bruce Ratner, said Gehry's concerns are understandable given the current economic environment, but he expressed confidence that the projects would get built.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently suggested that the project may still get built, but on a smaller scale and without the star architect, the New York Daily News reports.

"It would be sad if Atlantic Yards gets built without the Gehry design, which would've been phenomenal for this city," the mayor said. "I gather at this point it looks like that the only ways Ratner's going to get that done is to do it at a lower cost and not to do everything at the same time."

Yesterday, ARTINFO reported that another Gehry-Ratner collaboration, the Beekman Tower in lower Manhattan, was being scaled back. Only half of the planned 76 stories have been built so far, and construction has been put on hold pending a financial review of the project.