There’s a 1950s office building in Civic that once triggered fierce rivalry in the corporate world because it was Canberra’s first multi-storey block – and the tallest building in town.

The four-storey MLC building on London Circuit was such a big deal that it hosted live radio broadcasts and when the circus came to town, acrobats rappelled down its side.

Meanwhile next door, on what was then Petrie Street, fellow life-insurance company AMP was envious as it watched MLC flex its corporate muscle with soaring heights and prime street position.

AMP, at just three storeys, was dwarfed in its shadows.

Imagine the jealousy when MLC Tower decided to add another four storeys.

AMP quickly lodged an application to expand but never received approval so they left in a huff to move to the other end of the street (Hobart Place).

We know all this delicious gossip because semi-retired barrister and solicitor Rohan Goyne is running a tour for Canberra and Region Heritage Festival and he’s dug through nine files at the National Archives of Australia.

“Here you’ve got MLC that have just come into the country and their presence on the street was, ‘We’re big and powerful, we’ve got the tallest building in the city,’” Rohan said. “You’ve got a three-story brick building next door and it looked pretty sad and pathetic.”

Today, the old AMP building is demolished, leaving a spacious view of the MLC office block that once blocked out its sun and view.

The gaping hole where AMP once stood allows a view of the base of MLC Tower, where “Canberra reds” (bricks from the Yarralumla brickworks) were used for its foundation.

“One Canberra icon, you could argue, strengthening and supporting another,” Rohan said. “At each end it’s got Canberra red bricks providing the final stability for it.”

If you’re wondering why the MLC Tower was allowed to reach for the sky and AMP wasn’t, it’s because MLC’s foundations were deep enough and AMP’s weren’t (its building would have had to be demolished).

So for a princely sum of 250,000 pounds, the MLC Tower reached eight storeys in just a few years, and between 2pm and 4pm, Canberrans flocked to its rooftop viewing platform and cafe, which offered lofty view towards Mt Ainslie.

“There was a bit of corporate rivalry going on there,” Rohan said. “The AMP ultimately went down the other end of the city and they got their 15-story building … so there’s all this corporate envy going on.”

Size does matter.

As if owning the tallest building wasn’t enough, the MLC Tower also laid claim to Canberra’s first “curtain wall construction”, used in New York’s skyscrapers.

“The designers used revolutionary curtain wall construction, where they put a metal steel frame and then the glass curtain wall bolted to the steel frame, which takes all the weight,” Rohan said.

MLC’s luck ran out, however, when it lobbied to install a neon sign on its roof. The NCDC rejected the application (even though there was no policy on signage at the time).

Remarkably, the heritage-listed MLC building is still used as an office building 63 years later. Rohan actually worked next door in the AMP building in the ‘80s as a commercial lending manager for the National Australia Bank.

“I worked in that without realising the significance of it,” he said.

Rohan now has an avid interest in history and collects mid-century furniture. His tour “Canberra’s Emerald Tower” is on Sunday 12 April at 10am. Bookings: trybooking.com/events/landing/1506250

The Canberra and Region Heritage Festival runs from 11 April to 10 May. Program: environment.act.gov.au/heritage/heritage-festival