The exterior is pink granite ashlar with a hipped red tile roof, steeply pitched to shed snow and adorned by numerous turrets, gables and dormers with steeply peaked roofs; cylindrical corner towers with conical turrets occupy almost every change of projection.

The interior features a five-story courtyard with skylight and rooms with 20-foot ceilings, appointed with marble and carved mahogany and oak finishes.

Its Romanesque Revival architecture is similar to Edbrooke's Old Post Office Building in Washington D.C. John Dillinger's girlfriend Evelyn Frechette, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, "Doc" Barker and other members of the Barker-Karpis gang were tried in the building when it served as a federal courthouse.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun worked in the building as a law clerk to the younger Sanborn in 1932–33.

After its comprehensive 1972–78 renovation, the center became home to many prominent Twin Cities arts organizations, now including: For a time the high school St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists also held classes on the fifth floor.