The Memoria Project has been working for several months in conjunction with H2L2 Architects/Planners, LLP to develop a plan for the enhancement of Veterans' Memorial Park in Highlands, New Jersey.  It is here that the Memoria Project’s centerpiece statues currently stand, and where the completed memorial could be permanently installed.  The plan acknowledges the present uses of the Park, and seeks to improve each of them in an integrated design that fits harmoniously with its setting and encourages greater visitation.

The Park is currently used for four primary purposes:  1) Recreation       2) Memorializing veterans of the town; 3) Memorializing 9/11; and 4) Outdoor performances.  The current project addresses each of these considerations:
 

Recreation

• More dedicated green space (approximately 200 square feet) will be added in areas that are currently paved.
   
• The concrete path that circles the park, used by visitors to gain access to the water and exercise, will be improved.
   
• Benches will be added in an improved configuration that will provide points of rest in shaded areas.
   
• Trees, shrubs, flowers and other landscaping will be added to enhance the park’s overall appearance.
   

Veterans’ Memorial

While ostensibly dedicated to the memory of Highlands’ veterans, the Park currently displays only a small metal plaque, two small artillery cannons with plaques and four flagpoles in recognition of a portion of the town’s servicemen.  Moreover, as the park is shared by basketball courts, a tot lot and boardwalk, it is difficult to focus on the memory of town veterans. The proposed plan calls for the creation of a large area dedicated exclusively to honoring all of Highlands’ veterans, past, present and future, with the following features:

• A curving memorial wall, nearly ten feet high and two hundred feet long, constructed of weathering steel, which will hold stone tablets with the names of all Highlands veterans from the Revolutionary War to the present, and into the future, as necessary.
   
• A large plaza and memorial grove in front of the wall, landscaped with flowers and trees, and with special pavers to distinguish this area from other functions of the Park.
   
• Redesigned seating areas appointed with new benches for visitors to rest in the shade.
   
• Flagpoles repositioned to the front of the Veterans Memorial Wall.
   
• Special lighting to accent the Veterans Memorial Wall and allow for nighttime visitation.

The resulting Veterans Memorial Plaza is not only spacious but vertically impressive.  At nearly 10 feet high and over 200 feet long, it will be the most prominent aspect of the park as seen by all who enter the park, as well as by passing cars and pedestrians. 
 

9/11 Commemoration

The town of Highlands, more than any other town on the Jersey Shore, played an important role on September 11, 2001.  The town established a triage center and received thousands of persons from New York evacuated by boat, helping them escape the destruction and toxic environment, and return to their homes.

To acknowledge Highlands’ particular role in that day’s events, the town invited the Memoria Project’s partially-finished 9/11 tribute to be placed in Veterans' Memorial Park, where it has remained since the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks.  The plan to improve the park includes the completion of the Memoria Project tribute and its permanent installation, which will involve the following:

• Repositioning of the statues closer to the water, in a harmonious composition with the Veteran’s Memorial Wall.
   
• Installation of the second half of the Memoria Project: five granite boulders which hold the names of all victims (nearly 3,000) of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01.  These boulders will be placed in a ring around the statues, forming a circular memorial space with a diameter of approximately 90 feet (see our Memorial page for more information).
   
• The creation of a graded area to support the memorial, which will grade down to the boardwalk, and create a natural amphitheatre on its northern slope.
   

Performance Stage

Currently, concerts are performed on the southern end of the wooden platform at the water’s edge.  To enhance this use of the park, the new plan proposes the following: 

• The creation of a new, larger stage area, at the north end of the boardwalk.  This stage will be dedicated to the police, firefighters and emergency rescue volunteers from Highlands and neighboring communities who participated on their end in the evacuation of Lower Manhattan on 9/11 and who offered other services that day.
   
• The dedication of a large green space to the creation of a natural amphitheatre, which will face the stage area and become a pleasant sitting area that is well suited to viewing performances on the new stage.
   

Please send us comments and feedback.  Your voice helps us determine the best permanent location for our tribute. 

email:  feedback@memoriaproject.com
 

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