City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village [Paperback]

David Sucher (Author), Kevin Kane (Illustrator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0964268019 | ISBN-13: 978-0964268012 | Publication Date: October 3, 2003 | Edition: Revised

Be both hedgehog and fox.  Know thousands of little details.  Know three big rules. The book shows examples of small things city comforts that make urban life pleasant: places where people can meet, methods to tame cars and to make buildings good neighbors, art that infuses personality into locations and makes them into places. Many of these small details are so obvious as to be invisible. The book also discusses what the author calls the Three Rules of Urban Design. You can download a sample chapter at David's blog citycomforts.com

Editorial Reviews

Review

Clear, to the point and constructive. Jane Jacobs City Comforts is terrific. It is a wonderful delivery system. Andres Duany, Town Planner I was in the office of a prominent Vancouver landscape architect firm, responsible for some of the most important new projects in the city and there on a desk was a copy of City Comforts. Not surprising, really. Except this copy was absolutely jammed with little stickers and notes, almost doubling the thickness of that little volume. Clearly, City Comforts was a miniature encyclopedia for these urban designers. So my advice to potential purchasers: buy two. City Comforts is the kind of book easily worn out from overuse. Gordon Price, Former Councillor, City of Vancouver, B.C. (1986 2002) I purchased 100 copies of David Sucher's book City Comforts because I believe that we need to have a common reference as we attempt to being back what has been lost in our downtown in the past 50 years....I am not so naive as to think it will be easy to get 100 people to read this book at the same time...This is not an answer book but a question book. Included are rules, and sub-rules, and a reminder to be willing to break the rules....Read the book - Keep the book - or - Pass the book on. Please return this book to the Ormond Public Library if you do not want to keep it for your personal reference. Bill Partington II Ormond Beach, Florida --Various

For those of us addicted to city ambulation, to mind- jogging and chevy-cruising and dog-sniffing and catwalking in diurnal treasure hunt for novelties and arcana of simple pleasures, David Sucher has written a cartographic jewel in his new City Comforts: How to Build An Urban Village....This admirable work, expanding the ground-shifting of Jane Jacobs, will give comfort to those who wish to get on with making the cities they want while the ensconced bright talents evanesce in stupor. John Young, Architect New York City It's a really lovely book: a series of modest, down-to-earth tips about how cities and towns can turn themselves into more agreeable places. No theory, no philosophy, no criticism -- just practical observations about things that work and have shown their value, from curbs to traffic circles to awnings. David, who likes to present himself as an anti-ideas kind of guy, will object, but I maintain that his approach and his work are expressions of a set of deep convictions and ideas, namely the humane wing of architecture and town planning. Book buff that I am, I also love City Comforts as a book. It's a trim thing, a little larger than a guidebook, full of pictures and chunks of text. You can spend five minutes with it or hours with it; it's adaptable, it's here to help. Michael Blowhard, New York City City Comforts is essential reading if you want to understand your environment, and better yet, gives you the tools to change it. Ted Mills --Various

I've used your book for my undergrad class at Penn each of the last 4 years! I have my students create a Philadelphia version of City Comforts. They read your book and then have find a few local examples for each category. This exercise forces them to walk around the city and look hard at Philadelphia, something which most of them have never done before. Richard W. Berman, University of Pennsylvania I really like the new edition. As a City Manager I have given your book to Planning and Zoning commissioners and City Council members. It is a wonderful way to illustrate ways to build community. I would be interested in your bulk rates, can you email them to me? Kathy S. Rice, Assistant City Manager, City of Surprise, Arizona You may not think this topic interests you, but if you live in or near a city, it does whether you know it or not, and Sucher has an uncanny knack for simplifying complicated issues by reducing them to practical es --Various

For those of us addicted to city ambulation, to mind- jogging and chevy-cruising and dog-sniffing and catwalking in diurnal treasure hunt for novelties and arcana of simple pleasures, David Sucher has written a cartographic jewel in his new City Comforts: How to Build An Urban Village....This admirable work, expanding the ground-shifting of Jane Jacobs, will give comfort to those who wish to get on with making the cities they want while the ensconced bright talents evanesce in stupor. John Young, Architect New York City It's a really lovely book: a series of modest, down-to-earth tips about how cities and towns can turn themselves into more agreeable places. No theory, no philosophy, no criticism -- just practical observations about things that work and have shown their value, from curbs to traffic circles to awnings. David, who likes to present himself as an anti-ideas kind of guy, will object, but I maintain that his approach and his work are expressions of a set of deep convictions and ideas, namely the humane wing of architecture and town planning. Book buff that I am, I also love City Comforts as a book. It's a trim thing, a little larger than a guidebook, full of pictures and chunks of text. You can spend five minutes with it or hours with it; it's adaptable, it's here to help. Michael Blowhard, New York City City Comforts is essential reading if you want to understand your environment, and better yet, gives you the tools to change it. Ted Mills --Various

I've used your book for my undergrad class at Penn each of the last 4 years! I have my students create a Philadelphia version of City Comforts. They read your book and then have find a few local examples for each category. This exercise forces them to walk around the city and look hard at Philadelphia, something which most of them have never done before. Richard W. Berman, University of Pennsylvania I really like the new edition. As a City Manager I have given your book to Planning and Zoning commissioners and City Council members. It is a wonderful way to illustrate ways to build community. I would be interested in your bulk rates, can you email them to me? Kathy S. Rice, Assistant City Manager, City of Surprise, Arizona You may not think this topic interests you, but if you live in or near a city, it does whether you know it or not, and Sucher has an uncanny knack for simplifying complicated issues by reducing them to practical essentials. I ve never read anything so illuminating about what he calls the sociable city. Terry Teachout, Critic I found your site a year or so and like it a lot. your three rules explain things better and more economically than anyone else has managed. who knows, maybe some day common sense will come back in style. Mike Pauls, Recivilization City Comforts doesn t tell. it shows. Staffmember, William Stout Architectural Books An ideal reference for neighborhood planners, architects, and urban designers. American Planning Association I recommend reading this book and then giving it to a member of your local planning board. Phil Langdon New Urban News By the way, I keep your City Comforts book on a shelf right over my desk. It is currently resting between Jane Jacobs Life and Death of Great American Cities and Tony Hiss's Experience of Place. City Comforts is one of the very few books on urban design that speaks directly to lay peopleand planning commissioners.  It's a remarkable achievement. Robert Sharp Robert Sharp Architect, inc. --Various

From the Publisher

Simple Patterns, Simple Details Our purpose is to help make our urban civilization more...well...civilized. By and large our cities lack comfort and grace. Oh, they have their bright spots — and there is lots of good work being done — but overall it's pretty dreary.

The 'theory' of this book is that we don't pay attention to the small details of cities that really make the difference in our comfort. We spend a lot of time planning, a lot of time thinking about how wonderful it could all be. But we don't spend a whole lot of effort dealing with the thousands of small details that make up our daily experience. We are great on large-scale strategy and a bit inept at tactics.

There are many people all across the world who see both the poverty of our urban environments and see a way to evolve out of it. Speaking loosely, this approach can be called 'the new urbanism.' (I say loosely because there are many threads to this emerging urban tapestry and some pull in different directions. But they are all tied together by the desire to create cities built to human scale, where people can walk and where there is a sense of community.)

The simple patterns and simple details shown in City Comforts are not any panacea but they provide a framework for judging new construction, for separating the simple but crucial patterns from the trivial matters of style. This simple framework asks us to examine a very few elements of the urban landscape but it will go a long way to improve our cities.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: City Comforts Inc.; Revised edition (October 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964268019
• ISBN-13: 978-0964268012
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good reminder about what all the "little things" are., April 3, 2001

By 

Brian McLaren - See all my reviews

This review is from: City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village (Paperback)

This book provides brevity with depth. It reminds you about all those little things that sometimes get left out during development, but which make a world of difference to the people who live in it. Plenty of examples are provided, usually with the thought behind why they work. The author clearly enjoys his native city because almost all the examples come from the Northwest, but this makes them no less impactful. I highly recommend this book to students of architecture/planning, developers, city officials, or anyone who has an interest in the "little things" that make our built environment better. This would be a GREAT book for anyone who has any influence in high growth subruban areas--neighborhood assns., zoning officials, subdivision developers, etc. Enjoy!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A handbook for anyone building the world around us, March 25, 2005

By 

Tim Halbur (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village (Paperback)

In the first couple of pages of this book, David Sucher captures the struggle of modern urban planning: how do you make a place feel "urban" (bustling, a degree of anonymity, culture and complexity) and like a "village" (friendly, natural, community-oriented) at the same time?

The answers are here, in refreshingly easy-to-understand language that is also easy to implement. Good planning isn't a mystery, but so many cities and towns have done it so poorly for so long. I like to think that American planning is at the beginning of a renaissance (I have to think that, I'm in planning school) and people like David Sucher are making it happen. This should be on your shelf next to Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Planning Commissioner's Bible, December 31, 2003

By 

Keith A Bartholomew (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village (Paperback)

I am so glad that David Sucher has revised and reissued this book. I used the first edition for several courses that I teach in community development and urban planning, and I know of no better single volume text on urban design issues. The new edition is even better. The book is particularly useful for those who have an interest in planning and design issues, but have limited technical training or experience. As a consequence, it makes excellent reading for city planning commissioners.