City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village

by David Sucher

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.

Genres: Urban Planning, Nonfiction, Urbanism, Cities, Architecture, Urban, Urban Design

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[EdibleNotesReviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creating 'urban villages', livable, walkable, sustainable areas of development of the built environment is what's at the core of David Sucher's City Comforts. Designed for students of the urban landscape as well as neighborhood associations, public officials and developers. This tidy guide is pleasing in its simple presentation and powerful message.

Sucher presents his three 'rules' of urban design; build to the sidewalk, make the building front 'permeable' (glass, doors and windows) and prohibit parking in front of buildings (unless it is on street parking) straight up on the first page of the book. With dalliances and dabbles into green spaces, the use of public art, parking and street-scaping, Sucher visually presents working examples of what an urban village looks and feels like. Once visualized, the sometimes quaint notion of villages, becomes a powerful idea for living in hectic modern environments.

Sucher presents enough ideas and images to fill a much larger textbook on the subject but opts for the convenience and usability of the smaller format well. It is a guidebook as much as a text, equally useful for neighbors looking to influence community design, public officials to consider as projects are weighed and especially by designers.

One can hope that designing more 'City Comforts' into our new and redeveloped urban ladscapes will become required as time goes on. The designers of today and tomorrow in the U.S. will gain by considering Sucher's notes and examples carefully as guidelines for commercially and environmentally successful and enjoyable places to live and work for generations to come

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

City Comforts is a great book if you want good pictures and “implementable” physical changes that actually make a difference. It does not go to into a lot of theory, but has many nice pictures and fun anecdotes. If “A Pattern Language” is a dense philosophical tome, then “City Comforts” is a light pop philosophy read. Still, it’s an interesting read if you want ideas that can transform any mediocre streetscape or public realm into a much more enjoyable and lively locale. The patterns and features identified in the book could also be altered to be useful for a “tactical” or “guerrilla urbanism” project. My one big criticism is that many of the features/comforts are very site specific and are difficult to implement in a wide range of cities due to climate or urban form.

[Susan]

We need more books like City Comforts. Instead of putting the focus on one aspect of urban architecture (,landscape design, city planning, etc) this small book shows hundreds of examples of a city getting it right. From parking garages that mesh with their environment to the well-designed flow of a cafe, this book shows how a little thought in the planning stages can lead to big dividends in overall community happiness.

[Nikos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not your traditional read, it almost feels like a PowerPoint narrative at times, however the pure genius is how Sucher brings to life the mundane and obvious and bestows on them critical importance that any town planner or designer cannot ignore.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nowadays books about walkability are a sub-genre unto themselves. I really didn't expect much from a nearly 30-year-old title. But this book is a little gem. The author, having served on the Planning Commission in Seattle, describes the struggle of talking about abstractions (e.g., height, mass, lot coverage) and instead asks us to look as specific examples to explore what works (or what doesn't). The project started out as a collection of photos that were organized into themes. Most of the photos are from the northwestern U.S., and some of these town features are still clearly recognizable all these years later (basically proving the author's point that these "City Comforts" add value to our communities).

[Stuart McMillen · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Sucher provides a guide for how designers and citizens can create an "urban village". What is an "urban village"? Sucher describes it as a city that gives us the intimacy and connection of a village, but with the scale and anonymity of a large city.

This book is filled with plenty of pictorial examples of design features that create the urban village feeling.

If you like this book, I highly recommend the excellent Responsive Environments: A Manual for Designers (1985) by Bentley, Alcock, Murrain, McGlynn, and Smith, which is also filled with thought-provoking visual examples.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seattle-based urbanist with practical design advice at three levels: three basic rules, several broad topics and a blizzard of micro-level suggestions. Liberally illustrated with excellent photographs.

[Jeramey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great ideas written as capsules. Not a book you necessarily read straight through, but instead one better suited for reference.

[CL with her books · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book to own, but shared.

[Lghamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A common sense guide to urban design. Might need an update - lose the bulletin boards and urban clocks (except for Big Ben), add sharing economy concepts.

[Alma Galura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Content.

[Jeff Sovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sucher's writing is clear and accessible and obviously derives from deep understanding of the topic. He expertly and concisely describes hundreds of the tiny and all-too-often overlooked details that distinguish great urban environments from those that are mediocre or worse. A must-read for anyone who wants to do the work of planning and creating cities that are truly a pleasure to experience.

[Ryan]

Elegantly simple book on urban design. Filled with pictures that convey the concepts behind creating walkable urban areas. A very approachable book that not only will help you appreciate, or detest, the urban form we have created but arm you with solutions to common urban design problems.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really easy to read. Made me think differently about urban space.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy read with lots of pictures. Great for Planning Commissions and City Councils!

[Theo 'coco' · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think this boos is interesting for our to make better live in an urban village