In analysing unpublished archival material, this article questions the history of conflict around the Perret Tower, from its inclusion in the first drafts of the Amiens reconstruction plan in 1942 until its inauguration eighteen years later. Imagined as the dominant symbolic element of the urban design around the reconstructed station, the tower block had to face up to the principle of reality from the start of the project, with questions about its ultimate function as well as its cost effectiveness. The staggering lack of response to these fundamental issues did not prevent the building work commencing, which was finally halted for lack of a client, in a context of escalating costs despite careful monitoring by the departmental services of the Ministry of Reconstruction. The reception of Perret's as yet unfinished work was seen in a different light depending on whether it was observed in Amiens or from Paris, on the benches of the National Assembly or in the offices of the Court of Auditors. The tower block was finally bought in 1959 by the architect François Spoerry – who, for the occasion, became a property developer - and the tower block, which was still a concrete shell, was converted into housing and offices. Thus ended a controversy by which the impetus for the construction of high-rise buildings in France was linked to the fate of the Amiens skyscraper and its futility.