It was then used for many decades by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and served as the main tourist information.

[4] Controversy erupted when the competition was won by Samuel Hurst Seager; he was young and relatively inexperienced, and his design in Queen Anne style was an architectural type unfamiliar to New Zealand.

[2] Construction began in 1886, but the controversy continued when councillor Samuel Paull Andrews claimed the building was structurally unsound.

Benjamin Mountfort and John Whitelaw, both architects, and Edward Dobson, an engineer, reviewed the design and the building and found everything to be safe.

[7] Instead, Council purchased the burned out shell of the northern half of the Agricultural and Industrial Hall in 1920.

The building was taken over again by the council and opened as an exhibition, event and meeting space for the community in July 2002, branded as Our City O-Tautahi.

[10] Our City was damaged in the 2010 Canterbury earthquake and was closed, with heavy bracing installed around the building.

It is a rare example of the Queen Anne style, and at the time was a notable departure from the prevailing Gothic architecture.