It was one of only thirty-five Federal buildings built during Taylor's tenure (1883–1912) that were designed by independent architects commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department under the Tarsney Act.
Passed in 1893, the Act authorized the Treasury Secretary to use private architects, selected through architectural competitions, to design Federal buildings.
The initial appropriation of $1,500,000 was supplemented with an additional $400,000 as a result of Denver Postmaster Joseph H. Harrison's lobbying effort in Washington, DC.
[3] With its monumental presence and dramatic public spaces, the courthouse is an excellent example of the Neoclassical architecture that dominated federal building design at the turn of the 20th century.
Occupying an entire city block in downtown Denver and standing four stories in height, the building reflects the academic characteristics of the Neoclassical style with its symmetrical design, classical details, and imposing manner.
A series of grand stairs lead up to the main entrance on the southeast elevation (Stout Street), which is marked by sixteen, three-story, Ionic order columns adorned with eagles.
The frieze facing Eighteenth Street reads "Lex Nemini Iniquum, Nemini Injuriam Facit" (a quotation from Cicero, "The law causes wrong or injury to no one"), and the Nineteenth Street side reads "Nulli Negabimus, Nulli Differemus, Jutitiam" (a quotation from the Magna Carta, "To no one shall we deny justice, nor shall we discriminate in its application").
The U.S. District Courtroom A with its arched ceiling and pink-tinged white marble walls retains its original gold-trimmed black velvet drapery in the apse behind the judge's bench.
A pair of Indiana Limestone sculptures of Rocky Mountain sheep commissioned from Denver artist Gladys Caldwell Fisher (1907–1952) sit at the southwest entrance.
The murals, Fortune Turns on Her Wheel—The Fate of Kings, Postal Service, Labor is Great Producer of Wealth, and Nil Sine Numine (Nothing Without Power), were completed in 1918 and shipped from New York.