diff --git a/icu4c/readme.html b/icu4c/readme.html
index 995a65fcea..9a1234ad26 100644
--- a/icu4c/readme.html
+++ b/icu4c/readme.html
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@
         <ul >
           <li><a href="#HowToBuildSupported">Supported Platforms</a></li>
 
+          <li><a href="#RecBuild">Recommended Build Options</a></li>
+
           <li><a href="#HowToBuildWindows">Windows</a></li>
 
           <li><a href="#HowToBuildCygwin">Cygwin</a></li>
@@ -796,6 +798,144 @@
       there recently</dd>
     </dl>
 
+    <h3><a name="RecBuild" href="#RecBuild" id=
+    "RecBuild">Recommended Build Options</a></h3>
+
+    <p>Depending on the platform and the type of installation,
+    we recommend a small number of modifications and build options.</p>
+    <ul>
+      <li><b>Namespace:</b> By default, unicode/uversion.h has
+        "using namespace icu;" which defeats much of the purpose of the namespace.
+        (This is for historical reasons: Originally, ICU4C did not use namespaces,
+        and some compilers did not support them. The default "using" statement
+        preserves source code compatibility.)<br>
+        We recommend you turn this off via <code>-DU_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE=0</code>
+        or by modifying unicode/uversion.h:
+<pre>Index: source/common/unicode/uversion.h
+===================================================================
+--- source/common/unicode/uversion.h    (revision 26606)
++++ source/common/unicode/uversion.h    (working copy)
+@@ -180,7 +180,8 @@
+ #   define U_NAMESPACE_QUALIFIER U_ICU_NAMESPACE::
+
+ #   ifndef U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE
+-#       define U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE 1
++        // Set to 0 to force namespace declarations in ICU usage.
++#       define U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE 0
+ #   endif
+ #   if U_USING_ICU_NAMESPACE
+         U_NAMESPACE_USE
+</pre>
+        ICU call sites then either qualify ICU types explicitly,
+        for example <code>icu::UnicodeString</code>,
+        or do <code>using icu::UnicodeString;</code> where appropriate.</li>
+      <li><b>Hardcode the default charset to UTF-8:</b> On platforms where
+        the default charset is always UTF-8,
+        like MacOS X and some Linux distributions,
+        we recommend hardcoding ICU's default charset to UTF-8.
+        This means that some implementation code becomes simpler and faster,
+        and statically linked ICU libraries become smaller.
+        (See the <a href="http://icu-project.org/apiref/icu4c/utypes_8h.html#0a33e1edf3cd23d9e9c972b63c9f7943">U_CHARSET_IS_UTF8</a>
+        API documentation for more details.)<br>
+        You can <code>-DU_CHARSET_IS_UTF8=1</code> or modify unicode/utypes.h:
+<pre>Index: source/common/unicode/utypes.h
+===================================================================
+--- source/common/unicode/utypes.h      (revision 26606)
++++ source/common/unicode/utypes.h      (working copy)
+@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@
+  * @see UCONFIG_NO_CONVERSION
+  */
+ #ifndef U_CHARSET_IS_UTF8
+-#   define U_CHARSET_IS_UTF8 0
++#   define U_CHARSET_IS_UTF8 1
+ #endif
+
+ /*===========================================================================*/
+</pre></li>
+      <li><b>.dat file:</b> By default, the ICU data is built into
+        a shared library (DLL). This is convenient because it requires no
+        install-time or runtime configuration,
+        but the library is platform-specific and cannot be modified.
+        A .dat package file makes the opposite trade-off:
+        Platform-portable (except for endianness and charset family, which
+        can be changed with the icupkg tool)
+        and modifiable (also with the icupkg tool).
+        If a path is set, then single data files (e.g., .res files)
+        can be copied to that location to provide new locale data
+        or conversion tables etc.<br>
+        The only drawback with a .dat package file is that the application
+        needs to provide ICU with the file system path to the package file
+        (e.g., by calling <code>u_setDataDirectory()</code>)
+        or with a pointer to the data (<code>udata_setCommonData()</code>)
+        before other ICU API calls.
+        This is usually easy if ICU is used from an application where
+        <code>main()</code> takes care of such initialization.
+        It may be hard if ICU is shipped with
+        another shared library (such as the Xerces-C++ XML parser)
+        which does not control <code>main()</code>.<br>
+        See the <a href="http://userguide.icu-project.org/icudata">User Guide ICU Data</a>
+        chapter for more details.<br>
+        If possible, we recommend building the .dat package.
+        Specify <code>--with-data-packaging=archive</code>
+        on the configure command line, as in<br>
+        <code>runConfigureICU Linux --with-data-packaging=archive</code><br>
+        (Read the configure script's output for further instructions.
+        On Windows, the Visual Studio build generates both the .dat package
+        and the data DLL.)<br>
+        Be sure to install and use the tiny stubdata library
+        rather than the large data DLL.</li>
+      <li><b>Static libraries:</b> It may make sense to build the ICU code
+        into static libraries (.a) rather than shared libraries (.so/.dll).
+        Static linking reduces the overall size of the binary by removing
+        code that is never called.<br>
+        Example configure command line:<br>
+        <code>runConfigureICU Linux --enable-static --disable-shared</code></li>
+      <li><b>Out-of-source build:</b> It is usually desirable to keep the ICU
+        source file tree clean and have build output files written to
+        a different location. This is called an "out-of-source build".
+        Simply invoke the configure script from the target location:
+<pre>~/icu$ svn export http://source.icu-project.org/repos/icu/icu/trunk
+~/icu$ mkdir trunk-dev
+~/icu$ cd trunk-dev
+~/icu/trunk-dev$ ../trunk/source/runConfigureICU Linux
+~/icu/trunk-dev$ make check</pre></li>
+    </ul>
+    <h4>ICU as a System-Level Library</h4>
+    <p>If ICU is installed as a system-level library, there are further
+      opportunities and restrictions to consider.
+      For details, see the <em>Using ICU as an Operating System Level Library</em>
+      section of the <a href="http://userguide.icu-project.org/design">User Guide ICU Architectural Design</a> chapter.</p>
+    <ul>
+      <li><b>Data path:</b> For a system-level library, it is best to load
+        ICU data from the .dat package file because the file system path
+        to the .dat package file can be hardcoded.
+        Set <code>-DICU_DATA_DIR=/path/to/icu/data</code> when building
+        the ICU code. (Used by source/common/putil.c.)<br>
+        Consider also setting <code>-DICU_NO_USER_DATA_OVERRIDE</code>
+        if you do not want the "ICU_DATA" environment variable to be used.
+        (An application can still override the data path via
+        <code>u_setDataDirectory()</code> or
+        <code>udata_setCommonData()</code>.</li>
+      <li><b>Hide draft API:</b> API marked with <code>@draft</code>
+        is new and not yet stable. Applications must not rely on unstable
+        APIs from a system-level library.
+        Define <code>U_HIDE_DRAFT_API</code>, <code>U_HIDE_INTERNAL_API</code>
+        and <code>U_HIDE_SYSTEM_API</code>
+        by modifying unicode/utypes.h before installing it.</li>
+      <li><b>Only C APIs:</b> Applications must not rely on C++ APIs from a
+        system-level library because binary C++ compatibility
+        across library and compiler versions is very hard to achieve.
+        Most ICU C++ APIs are in header files that contain a comment with
+        <code>\brief C++ API</code>.
+        Consider not installing these header files.</li>
+      <li><b>Disable renaming:</b> By default, ICU library entry point names
+        have an ICU version suffix. Turn this off for a system-level installation,
+        to enable upgrading ICU without breaking applications. For example:<br>
+        <code>runConfigureICU Linux --disable-renaming</code><br>
+        The public header files from this configuration must be installed
+        for applications to include and get the correct entry point names.</li>
+    </ul>
+
     <h3><a name="HowToBuildWindows" href="#HowToBuildWindows" id=
     "HowToBuildWindows">How To Build And Install On Windows</a></h3>