(FORTUNE Small Business) – How do you turn a 75-acre Ohio farm field into a trendy downtown shopping district? "It's all in the details," says Paul Deutsch of Bialosky & Partners Architects. Deutsch recently added some Main Street touches to Crocker Park, a new lifestyle center it designed about 20 minutes from downtown Cleveland. "We didn't want people to feel like they were at a mall," says Deutsch. To achieve a distinctive sense of place, he used a variety of architectural accents borrowed from the city's historic Warehouse District, a hip and gritty old neighborhood of lofts.

SMART MOVES such as Crocker Park's giant outdoor chess garden provide an urbane place to play. Circling the oversized board are standard-sized teak-and-marble chess tables (warmed by heating lamps), where one can sit to play or chat.

CITY LIGHTS and signage with old-fashioned accents give the development's 12 "city blocks" a sense of history. Common street names such as Main, Market, and Union are meant to make new shoppers feel familiar with their surroundings.

PAVING THE WAY for a sense of nostalgia, Deutsch chose cobblestones instead of plain concrete for Crocker Park's 18-foot-wide sidewalks. For more street cred, Deutsch even reused stones and bricks from downtown Cleveland.

CREATING SERENITY along Crocker Park Boulevard, the development's principal entrance, is a water fountain. Other features such as a community fire pit and a summer concert stage are strategically placed to lure visitors farther into the center. — A.T.G.