The University at Buffalo has chosen an architectural firm to design its new $375 million medical school at Main and High streets.

The well-known, international firm HOK Helmuth, Obata & Kassabaum was selected to lead the building design over the next 13 months in preparation for the groundbreaking in fall 2013, UB announced.

Part of the process includes exhibiting four design concepts for public feedback.

"You don't get many opportunities to do a project of this size and scope on Main Street," said Robert G. Shibley, dean of the UB School of Architecture and Planning. "It's just a tremendous opportunity for downtown, Allentown and the entire neighborhood."

UB plans to move its School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from the South Campus on Main to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus by 2016.

Nineteen architectural teams were pared down to four finalists that were asked to compete for the UB contract by designing a concept for the new medical school.

UB anticipates building a 12-, nine- or seven-story medical school with more than a half-million square feet of space.

The architectural competition was a chance to consider possibilities for a building on a site with some complex urban-design challenges: adding green space, walkways and an extension of Allen Street; incorporating the Allen-Medical Campus Metro Station; blending with Allentown and several historic buildings nearby; and serving as a signature "front door" for the Medical Campus along Main.

"We will not build any of the four designs," Shibley said. "This process was never intended to produce a winning design, but to reveal how the architects were thinking about and approaching the project."

The four design concepts will be on display for public input in the Greatbatch Pavilion of the Darwin Martin House, 125 Jewett Parkway, through next Thursday and then in the Central Library on Lafayette Square through June 8.

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UB picks architect for medical school