Charlottesville City Council paid tribute this week to the late Satyendra Huja, a former Mayor who was once the city’s director of urban planning. Huja died on February 14 and his obituary has now been published.
Huja also taught for many years at the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia.
“I got to first know Mr. Huja as his student in 1988 and then we became friends and mentor and I’ll miss him dearly,” said Mayor Juandiego Wade. “When I got on Council I would go and visit him frequently and I let him know what was going on on Council and he was still educating me.”
Wade credited Huja for his work helping to form the Dogwood Housing, the Downtown Mall, and Riverview Park.
The creation of the mall in the 1970’s was Charlottesville’s attempt to lure people downtown by turning a street into a public space. City Councilor Lloyd Snook said this version has lasted because of Huja’s persistence.
“He understood something that people who have started pedestrian malls in other parts of the world hasn’t always understood which is that you don’t just start it in and forget about it,” Snook said. “You’ve got to get keep working on it. You’ve got to keep building on it.”
Snook said Huja helped bring about the construction of the Omni Hotel on the Downtown Mall on property that had been purchased by the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
“He was instrumental in getting the Pavilion built,” Snook said.
A celebration of Huja’s life will be held Saturday, March 1st at 3:00 p.m. in the Unitarian Universalist Church on Rugby Road.
2011 Campaign Video
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