After focusing on opportunities overseas, architect Scott Sarver is preparing to tackle new projects in Chicago, his first here since the recession.

Mr. Sarver, a former principal at now-defunct DeStefano & Partners Ltd., one of several architecture firms that fell victim to the recession, now serves as co-founder and principal of smdp LLC, which has teamed up with Chicago-based Fifield Cos. on an ambitious master plan to cover the Kennedy Expressway downtown and create a “New West Loop.”

The vision: to create a hub of office developments that attract the businesses of tomorrow.

“Data, fiber, technology, finance — those are the tenancies that are growing now; those are the new spaces,” Mr. Sarver said. “The opportunity for Chicago is to . . . physically embody and personify this transformation that's happening rather than just to let it happen naturally — to actually be proactive about it.”

Preliminary plans call for eight to 12 acres of public park that would be built over the expressway, bridging the gap between the West Loop and the central business district, said Steven Fifield, president of Chicago-based Fifield. The recreational space would then serve as a catalyst for bringing new office towers, and tenants to fill them, to the neighborhood, he said.

The capping project would cost around $45 million if it were to span the three blocks between Washington Boulevard and Adams Street, and its first phase could be funded with tax-increment financing from the city, Mr. Fifield said. As more tenants move to the area, boosting tax revenue, the project would likely end up paying for itself, he said.