"We asked for proposals, we got it down to two [Harbourside and Hundertwasser]," Cr Christie said.
"With capital expenditure, Hundertwasser won. With operating expenditure, Hundertwasser won. With education, Hundertwasser won. Schools - primary schools, intermediates and high schools - have written to us saying they want Hundertwasser," he said.
Ms Mai said after the meeting she wished the council had been able to make a decision.
"Obviously people will have their say via the referendum, which is good, even if I don't agree with the method."
Earlier she'd expressed her preference for Hundertwasser - "this is a gift to our district, we need to accept it" - as well as her disagreement with referendums in general.
"If we get a very small return, we are basing our decision on a very small proportion of our community."
A referendum would also rule out one of the proposals completely, she said. "It's not an and-and [situation] - it's a pick one."
Cr Glen said: "Without the vote of the people, the incompetency of what goes on in here will continue. I don't want to do two more years of what we've had to put up with in the last months."
Cr Halse, a supporter of the Hundertwasser in the previous term, said the lack of process had led him to support a motion to reject it. "We went through a process that got hijacked."
As chairman of the 20/20 Inner City Revitalisation Committee he was responsible for designing the score system used to evaluate the proposals.
Cr Williamson revealed in yesterday's meeting that Hundertwasser received the highest score of 109, closely followed by Harbourside with 103.
That was despite the fact Hundertwasser had years of preparation behind it, while Harbourside had only weeks, Cr Halse said.
He described a referendum as a "compromise".
"Personally I would have liked to make a decision today. We need to let the people have the final say, and move on."
Barry Trass, spokesman for Prosper Northland, the trust driving the Hundertwasser proposal, said the group was "appalled" the council couldn't make a decision.
"If you had to do a referendum on everything that came before council, nothing would get done."
The trust had plans to raise $10 million for the centre, and gift the building back to the city after underwriting it for 10 years.
"We've put a lot of time, effort and money into this. We'll have to have a serious look as to whether we'll want to continue."
