Tour Perret (English: Perret Tower) is a 29-

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

, residential skyscraper in

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It has been described as France's first skyscraper, and was registered as a

historic monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

in 1975. Its building was part of a large scale reconstruction project helmed by architect

Auguste Perret Auguste Perret (12 February 1874 – 25 February 1954) was a French architect and a pioneer of the architectural use of reinforced concrete. His major works include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris; the C ...

in the Place Alphone-Fiquet neighborhood, which also involved a rebuild of the nearby

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

. The design phase started as early as 1942, following extensive damages suffered by downtown Amiens during World War II. Perret intended it as an office building before authorities overruled him.
Originally measuring 104 metre, Tour Perret was the highest, and the first 100-plus metre skyscraper built in France, although it was not the highest in Western Europe, as it has sometimes been written. The building actually fell slightly short of its intended height as its topmost part, a belfry adorned with a monumental clock, was never built due to delays and cost overruns.
In 2005, the tower was finally completed with a so-called ''Sablier de lumière'' (English: Hourglass of Light) designed by architect Thierry Van de Wyngaert. It is a cube made of 192 active glass pannels whose transparency can be electrically adjusted, illuminated by twelve circular

neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...

lamps which project different colors depending on the time of day. In 2017, the lighting system was redesigned and simplified for cost and practicality. The cube's addition brought the height of the building up to 110 metre.

References

{{Buildings in France timeline Buildings and structures completed in 2006 Residential buildings completed in 1954 World Heritage Sites in France