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Oregon Health & Science University officials plan by early next year to hire architects and contractors for two new buildings in the South Waterfront District.

The university anticipates having firms contracted to design and build the $340 million Center for Health and Healing South in mid-December and having a project team in place for the $160 million Knight Cancer Research Building by early January 2015, OHSU spokeswoman Tamara Hargens-Bradley said. She declined to name the finalists among firms responding to requests for proposals that OHSU issued in August.

The estimated 675,000-square-foot Center for Health and Healing South will hold ambulatory surgery services and outpatient clinics for cancer treatment and cardiovascular surgery. It also will house the clinical trials for OHSU’s Knight Cancer Institute, an 80-bed guesthouse, a conference center, a central utility plant and a parking garage.

The approximately 330,000-square-foot Knight Cancer Center Building will have research labs, administrative offices, a conference center and parking. Plans to construct the center got a boost last year when Nike co-founder Phil Knight promised to give $500 million to the Knight Cancer Institute if OHSU could raise $500 million more in two years.

Construction is scheduled to start on both buildings in March 2016 and finish by July 2018.

The buildings will be constructed near the $295 million Collaborative Life Sciences Building, which opened in June.