Resident input into newly redesigned development was less oppositional, but not quite accepting.

On Thursday, the 89-year-old legend himself sat in front of a skeptic audience: his own neighbors.

“We want it to be human scale,” Gehry said of the Ocean Avenue Project, a mixed-use hotel, apartment complex, cultural center and shopping center. “We don’t want it to get out of line. We want it to be pedestrian friendly.”

Public attendees were still skeptical of the project, but the reception was far more optimistic than for other recent downtown developments.