Toronto Star

Joey Tanenbaum, the rebel benefactor and board member, is back in the fold at the Art Gallery of Ontario — content that the Tanenbaum sculpture atrium has been saved. He and his wife, Toby, have settled their dispute with the gallery and pledged to support plans for a $195 million makeover by architect Frank Gehry that they bitterly attacked in March, plunging the AGO into crisis. "They've changed the design sufficiently to make us happy," Tanenbaum said yesterday in an interview with the Star. That includes a new look for the façade.

According to Tanenbaum, significant changes include:
- Raising the ceiling of the atrium to a height of 9.5 metres, which makes it a light-filled space and more suitable for sculpture exhibitions rather than social events.
- Moving two elevator shafts that would have been ugly and intrusive.
- Changing the exterior of the Dundas St. W. façade from steel and titanium to wood, making it both warmer and less expensive.
- Changing Gehry's new spiral staircase in Walker Court so that it no longer descends to the main level but ends at the mezzanine level — thus saving the court as an exhibition space.