A unique opportunity to influence a direction and style for the heart of Tauranga City over the next hundred years or so begins.

The first phase of public consultation over the civic centre re-development project begins next week.

What do you think the news city hall should look like?

'What we're doing is starting engagement on city centre square idea,” says Mayor Stuart Crosby.

Council staff are seeking public input to the question: what is a civic heart?

It can mean many things tangible and otherwise, some of which are on the council short list and some are not, yet.

The ratepayers own the city block bounded by Durham, Wharf, Willow and Hamilton streets.

Most of the existing council office accommodation space is unusable because of leaks and mould. Previous public reports show repair costs and rebuild costs may be comparable, opening the way to rebuild the entire block.

As well as the council offices, councillors are looking at a new civic centre including a library to share stories and knowledge, a museum to celebrate history, a performing arts centre, a city square, conference centre, hotel and accessibility and car parking.

'We know that cities around the world have vibrant city centres and our elected members have scoped elements that they put in a list of things they think could potentially be part of this project,” says council communication advisor Amanda Weatherly.

'We know that we need a permanent or long term spaces for city council staff and whether those elements are they could investigate or include the library there, the museum, performing arts centre and cultural centre.

'We are in that unique position at the moment where council needs that accommodation, plus we own the largest piece of land. How can we use that to make it more vibrant city centre.”

For Tauranga residents and ratepayers, consultation also opens discussion on the new civic centre's style and appearance.

What style of central city architecture will provide the focus or backdrop to the city's festivals and other celebrations of life over the next century?

Napier's got art deco, thanks to an earthquake. Oamaru's Victorian stone buildings provide a unique backdrop for the local steampunk culture.

Thames, which also has some remaining Victorian buildings but more in the wood framed corrugated iron style, is also home to a photogenic crew of costumed steampunks, exploited so well in Peter James Quinn's photography.

Tauranga could also go steampunk. A suitably Victoriana gold rush style, city hall civic centre design could be done on the cheap. A bit of cement, corrugated iron and wood, blended with the 21st Century solar panels, wind generators and exterior gardens. The theme would have designers working for free, almost.

But Victorian architecture is generally criticised as a pastiche of old styles dressed up in modern materials. Tauranga's first town hall was Edwardian. Built in 1916, just five years after Victoria's death, it inherited many of the Victorian style faults; concrete trying to look like stone, the fake columns and a bit of gingerbread along the roof line.

It is called ‘classic revival' style – a warming over of boring ideas accepted to a committee of councillors.

It had to be pulled down in the 1980s because the salt wasn't properly washed out of the sand used in the cement, and rusted out the steel reinforcing over time. Staff working there had to sweep their desks of bits of crumbling building each day.

It lasted about 70 years.

The replacement civic centre lasted barely twenty years. Styled in late 20th Century commercial bland, those buildings were never style statements and the unresolved internal faults meant mould growth exploited the leaks that were never stopped.

The civic centre discussion process is a unique opportunity for Tauranga to decide a style for its city hall as an identifier for the city, otherwise it may be another hundred years of commercial, lowest common denominator boring.