The Concord School Board will likely hire Massachusetts firm HMFH Architects to design the three new elementary schools called for in the district's consolidation plan.

The Cambridge firm beat out contender The Office of Michael Rosenfeld Inc. to secure a unanimous recommendation by the board's capital facilities committee Monday night. Committee members and other school officials lauded the structural design, bright colors and coziness of elementary schools they visited that were designed by HMFH.

School board members and district administrators toured schools designed by each firm during two daylong bus trips in July.

"They seemed like they would be inviting to a child," said school board member Jennifer Patterson, not a committee member, of the HMFH schools.

School board President Kass Ardinger also supported the recommendation, noting the firm's attention to detail, color schemes and security provisions at the schools.

Conversations with the two finalist firms indicated that HMFH showed better understanding of the steps already taken to plan the consolidation, according to numerous board members and Principal Susan Noyes of Kimball and Walker schools.

The firm stood out for its expertise in K-5 education, sustainable design and historic preservation, said Matt Cashman, director of facilities and planning for the district.

If the school board hires HMFH at its next meeting Aug. 3, the firm would immediately begin schematic designs of the three buildings, Cashman said. The firm would design from scratch a new K-2 building on the property of Broken Ground School, and students from Dame and Eastman would attend it.

The firm would consider renovating or building a new Kimball School, which Walker School students would also attend, and a new Conant School, which Rumford School students would attend.

The Broken Ground and Beaver Meadow buildings would remain untouched.

Plans could be finalized by late December or early January, and the district would then consider the order of construction, Cashman said. Construction could begin next summer, he said.

The project will cost $57.6 million, but officials expect 43 percent to be reimbursed through the state's building aid program for schools. Cashman said it is too early to predict the cost of architectural services.

If the district hires HMFH, it will also work with the firm's New Hampshire engineering partners, Cashman said.

Rist-Frost-Shumway Engineering of Laconia would handle the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural aspects of the project, while Nobis Engineering of Concord would provide civil engineering, as it has in Concord schools for 15 years.