Towers of concrete and glass are among buildings that will be saved from the wrecking ball under a City of Sydney council plan to preserve some of its most prominent modernist architecture.

The council is proposing to heritage list office blocks, a church and playground sculpture as examples of Modern Movement design that should be protected from the city's development rush.

The MLC Centre in Martin Place is one of Sydney's most prominent examples of Modern Movement design.

Among them is the MLC Centre in Martin Place and the former Sydney County Council building on George Street, as well as the brutalist buildings of Town Hall House and the Sydney Masonic Centre.

The proposal also takes in lesser known examples including St Peter Julian’s Catholic Church and Monastery in Haymarket and Anita Aaron's Earth Mother play sculpture in Cook and Phillip Park.