[3] The Beaux-Arts architecture-style structure includes such features as four 25-by-45-foot (7.6 m × 13.7 m) murals by Charles Holloway, twenty-eight different kinds of scagliola covering 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2), bas-reliefs and art glass.

Atop the building is a 255-foot (78 m)-high copper-clad domed rotunda, itself topped by a 14-foot (4.3 m) statue wind vane of Lady Liberty.

[citation needed] The building materials include Bedford Limestone and Vermont granite with Italian marble details.

The skylights originally built into the building were covered during World War II and replaced with artificial light.

[citation needed] The 2001 National Historic Landmark Nomination says in its opening paragraph: "An elaborate combination of Greek, Roman, and Renaissance influences, the massive courthouse reflects the exuberant ambition of late nineteenth century America.