Australia’s tallest building and the second tallest concrete building in the world upon completion, MLC Centre was conceived with a number of design features which were initially developed for construction of Australia Square. The MLC Centre, like Australia square is set back on a plaza, with the tower’s non-rectilinear footprint occupying only 20 percent of the entire site area. By placing the tower on the southern end of the site, the building could avoid an underground railway while also providing for an outdoor public plaza best positioned to receive natural sunlight.

The MLC Centre is octagonal in form, based on a square plan aligned diagonally to street grid and then chamfering the corners. The form provided for a footplate with a larger area than a typical rectilinear building, but more efficient spatially with interiors having better access to natural light and views, while also reducing the amount of wind loading on the overall tower. Like Australia Square, MLC Centre utilizes a series of tapering large external columns surrounding the building’s perimeter, except here the columns tapper completely until they become flush with façade at the top of the building. Also like Australia Square, the construction process utilized quartz concrete set into pre-cast units of standardized sizes and used not only as a finish of the exterior façade, but also as formwork for the pouring of the reinforced concrete structure, assisting in shorting the construction schedule as the building rose at an average rate of one floor every four days. The façade was then composed of recessed windows and textured concrete spandrels provided for passive solar shading. After completion, MLC Centre held the title of Australia’s tallest building for nine years, until it was surpassed by the Rialto Towers in Melbourne.