I wouldn't go as far as to say the design of the stump field will be the same.
Just because the foundations are layed out a certain way doesn't mean the
building that gets put up has to look or function the same way. The stumps
site will almost certainly contain retail on Cookman (too lucrative a location
now) and will likely have a different facade design then the current building.
The diagonal street grids are a nightmare for planning and design, and those
streets didn't do much in terms of pedestrial flow to the lake. If anything,
they make the walk to the lake longer but taking you diagonally through the
site. The layout now is no different than how the business district of Cookman
Ave works, and much less confusion to car traffic and pedestrian flow.
As many have said, Wesley Grove's biggest flaw is the lack of retail on
Cookman. Sounds like this problem has been realized and will be addressed come
time to start building again. I would safely assume at the time it was
designed, they didn't feel they would be able to lease enough retail to fill
out a block, so they designed without it. Much of Cookman (and the boardwalk)
was still vacant at the time and it wouldn't have made sense for them to build
retail they couldn't lease. They did place one small retail bay at the corner
of Cookman and Heck.
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "wernerapnj" <wernerapnj@...> wrote:
>
> Recall that there was a diagonal street across that block originally -
>
> The plan recommended that it be retained as a public / pedestrian
> thoroughfare to provide walkability between Cookman and Lake Ave and a
> neighborhood feel.
>
> The plan also specifies that a 'block-face' should incorporate differing
> architecture to alleviate visual monotony in favor of visual interest and
> better scale.
>
> Neither of those 2 important design criteria were met in the final product.
> Wesley Lake has been 'walled-off' by a building with homogeneous features.
> Typical of suburban development.
>
> An opportunity has been lost to use important character defining features of
> Asbury Park in favor of high density construction that is easy to build. The
> specs of the redevelopment plan were ignored.
>
> Note also that Phase 2 (the stump field) will be a replica of Phase 1.
>
> Werner
>
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