| Ciudad Guayana | |
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| Aerial view of the modern planned part of Guayana City | |
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Ciudad Guayana
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| Coordinates: | |
| Founded | 1961 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | José Ramón Lopéz |
| Population (2001) | |
| • Total | 940,477 |
| • Demonym | guayanés |
| Time zone | VST (UTC-4:30) |
| • Summer (DST) | not observed (UTC-4:30) |
| Area code(s) | 0286 |
Ciudad Guayana (English: Guayana City) is a city in Bolívar State, Venezuela. It lies south of the Orinoco, where the river is joined by the Caroní River. The city, officially founded in 1961, is actually composed of the old town of San Félix at the east and the new town of Puerto Ordaz at the west, which lie either banks of the Caroní and are connected by three bridges. The city stretches 40 kilometers along the south bank of the Orinoco. With approximately one million people, it is a large city by Venezuelan standards. It is also the country's fastest-growing city, due to its important iron industry.
It is one of Venezuela's five most important ports, since most goods produced in Bolívar are shipped through it into the Atlantic Ocean, via the Orinoco river. Ciudad Guayana is also the location of the Second Orinoco crossing.
It is served by Manuel Carlos Piar Guayana Airport.
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Since its foundation it has grown from two fledgling towns into the Guayana region's most important industrial center, and a hub of growth in an otherwise typically underpopulated region of Venezuela.
Much critique has been made about its design, which was created by a number of planners from MIT and Harvard in the early 1960s. Lisa Peattie's "A View From the Barrio" is a good discussion of the adverse social effects that occur when a modernist city is placed without regard for context (social, economic, cultural, or climatological) in the middle of nowhere.