page_title: Guatemala City
section_title: Structure and growth
hierarchical_section_title: Guatemala City / Structure and growth
caption_attribution_description: English: Guatemala City zone 14
context_page_description: Guatemala City, locally known as Guatemala or Guate, officially Ciudad de Guatemala, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nestled in a mountain valley called Valle de la Ermita. It is estimated that its population is about 1 million. Guatemala City is also the capital of the Municipality of Guatemala and of the Guatemala Department.
  Guatemala City is the site of the Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu, founded around 1500 BC. Following the Spanish conquest, a new town was established, and in 1776 it was made capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala. In 1821, Guatemala City was the scene of the declaration of independence of Central America from Spain, after which it became the capital of the newly established United Provinces of Central America. In 1847, Guatemala declared itself an independent republic, with Guatemala City as its capital. The city was almost completely destroyed by the 1917–18 earthquakes. Reconstructions following the earthquakes have resulted in a more modern architectural landscape.
context_section_description: Guatemala City is located in the mountainous highlands of the country, between the Pacific coastal plain to the south and the northern lowlands of the Peten region.
  The city's metropolitan area has recently grown very rapidly and has absorbed most of the neighboring municipalities of Villa Nueva, San Miguel Petapa, Mixco, San Juan Sacatepequez, San José Pinula, Santa Catarina Pinula, Fraijanes, San Pedro Ayampuc, Amatitlán, Villa Canales, Palencia and Chinautla forming what is now known as the Guatemala City Metropolitan Area.
  The city is subdivided into 22 zones ("Zonas") designed by the urban engineering of Raúl Aguilar Batres, each one with its own streets ("Calles"). avenues ("Avenidas") and sometimes "Diagonal" Streets, making it pretty easy to find addresses in the city. Zones are numbered 1–25 with Zones 20, 22 and 23 not existing as they would have fallen in two other municipalities' territory. Addresses are assigned according to the street or avenue number, followed by a dash and the number of metres it is away from the intersection.
  For example, the INGUAT Office on "7a Av. 1-17, Zona 4" is a building which is located on Avenida 7, 17 meters away from the intersection with Calle 1, toward Calle 2 in zone 4.
  7a Av. 1-17, Zona 4; and 7a Av. 1-17, Zona 10, are two radically different addresses.
  Short streets/avenues do not get new sequenced number, for example, 6A Calle is a short street between 6a and 7a.
  Some "avenidas" or "Calles" have a name in addition to their number, if it is very wide, for example Avenida la Reforma is an avenue which separates Zone 9 and 10 and Calle Montúfar is Calle 12 in Zone 9.
  Calle 1 Avenida 1 Zona 1 is the center of every city in Guatemala.
  Zone One is the Historic Center, (Centro Histórico), lying in the very heart of the city, the location of many important historic buildings including the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura (National Palace of Culture), the Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Congress, the Casa Presidencial (Presidential House), the National Library and Plaza de la Constitución (Constitution Plaza, old Central Park). Efforts to revitalize this important part of the city have been undertaken by the municipal government.
  Besides the parks, the city offers a portfolio of entertainment in the region, focused on the so-called Zona Viva and the Calzada Roosevelt as well as four degrees North. Casino activity is considerable, with several located in different parts of the Zona Viva. The area around the East market is being redeveloped.
  Within the financial district are the tallest buildings in the country including: Club Premier, Tinttorento, Atlantis building, Atrium, Tikal Futura, Building of Finances, Towers Building Batteries, Torres Botticelli, Tadeus, building of the INTECAP, Royal Towers, Towers Geminis, Industrial Bank towers, Holiday Inn Hotel, Premier of the Americas, among many others to be used for offices, apartments etc. Also included are projects such as Zona Pradera and Interamerica's World Financial Center.
  One of the most outstanding mayors was the engineer Martin Prado Vélez, who took over in 1949, and ruled the city during the reformist Presidents Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, although he was not a member of the ruling party at the time and was elected due his well-known capabilities. Of cobanero origin, married with Marta Cobos, he studied at the University of San Carlos; under his tenure, among other modernist works of the city, infrastructure projects included El Incienso bridge, the construction of the Roosevelt Avenue, the main road axis from East to West of the city, the town hall building, and numerous road works which meant the widening of the colonial city, its order in the cardinal points and the generation of a ring road with the first cloverleaf interchange in the city.
  In an attempt to control the rapid growth of the city, the municipal government (Municipalidad de Guatemala) headed by longtime Mayor Álvaro Arzú, has implemented a plan to focus growth along important arterial roads and apply Transit-oriented development (TOD) 
caption: Zone 14 of Guatemala City
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2048", "Image ImageLength": "920", "Image DateTime": "2019:10:03 20:27:20", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image ExifOffset": "94", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "920", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048"}